Two individuals in Visakhapatnam were caught conducting illegal sale and marketing of Tocilizumab and Bevacizumab injections. They were arrested during a decoy operation by Drugs Control Administration (DCA) Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Tocilizumab and Bevacizumab injections have been high in demand due to their life-saving characteristics. These injections are administered to critical cases of Covid-19 who are on ventilator support.
Drugs Inspector D Suneetha (Vigilance and Intelligence), along with CI Tirupathi Rao, conducted a decoy operation to intersect an illegal sale of Tocilizumab and Bevacizumab injections. Two persons, namely, Dadi Prasanna Kumar and S Ramya Krishna were offering Tocilizumab injection for Rs. 3,00,000/- on Sunday morning. But by afternoon, when Drugs Inspector Suneetha contacted Prasanna Kumar, posing as attendants of a Covid-19 patient, he claimed that Tocilizumab was out of stock and instead, offered a similar drug called Bevacizumab at Rs. 75,000/- per vial (Rs.1,50,000/- for two vials).
DI Suneetha, posing as a patient’s daughter agreed to that price. Then, a lady named S Ramya Krishna contacted her on the phone and asked the Drugs Inspector to wait at Santhipuram. While Prasanna Kumar and S Ramya Krishna were handing over the vials to DI Suneetha, they were arrested during the decoy operation by Drugs Inspector Visakhapatnam, PNVVS Kalyani (Sales) and CI Tirupathi Rao and the two vials were seized, under 18(c) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
Now, a charge-sheet will be filed against Prasanna Kumar who was working as a medical representative and Ramya Krishna who assisted him in the illegal sale of injections at exorbitant prices. The MRP value of Tocilizumab, as well as Bevacizumab injections, is Rs. 49,000/-.
Visakhapatnam has been experiencing a shortage of medical equipment, especially Covid-19 related, as the city grapples with the second wave of the pandemic. A few in the city have turned this into an opportunity to quote prices as high as they want on medical equipment like oxygen cylinders, Remdesivir vials, etc. Of late, DCA Visakhapatnam has been cracking down heavily on such illegal sale and black marketing of medical equipment by conducting decoy operations in the city.
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