PROFITEERING IN THE PANDEMIC

SHORTAGES AND BOTTLENECKS IN THE DELIVERY OF CRITICAL DRUGS AND MEDICAL SUPPLIES HAVE LEFT DESPERATE FAMILIES OF COVID PATIENTS EXPOSED TO A RAPACIOUS BLACK MARKET

- SHWWETA PUNJ

On the night of April 26, Aseem Bhatia, a 53-year-old entrepreneur in New Delhi, anxiously awaited the Remdesivir injections required for his 41-year-old Covid-positive sister. Her oxygen saturation levels had dropped below 80 and the doctor had advised that Remdesivir be administered in the next few hours. Bhatia’s team, which had fanned out to drug stores across the city, returned past midnight at 2 am with two doses of the injection (three vials) purchased for Rs 80,000 from a ‘supplier’ they found standing outside a mall in Rohini. But, to his utter shock, Bhatia soon realised that the vials were fake, with even the drug’s name on them misspelt.

“We needed Remdesivir desperately that night. We had checked with every possible chemist and even visited offices of the drug controller—not a single official was available onsite,” recalls Bhatia, who also paid several times the MRP for several other Covid drugs. Bhatia’s sister was admitted to a hospital the next morning where she underwent plasma therapy. She is back home now after what she describes as a “walk through hell”.

The rampaging Covid pandemic exposed the sheer inadequacies in our preparedness and strategy. Hospitals were overwhelmed, crematoriums and burial sites ran out of space, Covid testing struggled to meet the demand and the vaccination drive is still at the risk of going off-track. Worse, gaping holes in vital supplies, such as of Covid drugs like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, oxygen cylinders and oxygen concentrators, have stoked a thriving black market where thousands are forced to pay exorbitant prices for vital medicines and equipment.