HUMANITY LOST

The ruthless black-market that feeds on the artificial demand for Remdesivir and Tocilizumab is mutating faster than the virus itself

- SAHAYA NOVINSTON LOBO

At Government tiruvannamalai Hospital, in Covid-19 wards choking with suffering, an insidious business was afoot. Helming it was Ramesh*, a hospital helper, tasked with administering Remdesivir injection to Covid-19 patients. Ramesh, however, was not oblivious of the black-market price of the drug. So, when a doctor tells him to administer Remdesivir to a patient, he would make his own ‘observation’ to check whether the patient would live or not. If his ‘prognosis’ was negative, which they often were, Ramesh kept the vial for himself and lied to the doctor that the injection had been given. this ugly business, however, came undone when Mohammed Imran Khan, a 25-year old tambaram doctor who had purchased the vials from Ramesh for sale in the black market, was busted.

Superintendent of Police (Civil Supplies CID) S Santhi, whose team arrested the suspects, said Ramesh had stolen vials after vials this way and sold them to Khan.

Blinded by greed

What you just read is one of the many ways money is made out of the an unjustifiable demand for Remdesivir and Tocilizumab in the State. Like the virus, the black market for these drugs has had a morbid mutation in the second wave of the pandemic. Greed, it seems, has become as infectious as the virus itself, with even doctors, hospitals, and hospitals staff jumping on the bandwagon to swindle and exploit helpless patients and their desperate kin. This Sunday, Express tells you how these crimes work in the State. Apart from the modus operandi of Ramesh, four more methods have been identified.

Stealing remaining vials