Pune: Three held for selling key drugs illegally

PUNE: The Pune rural police on Sunday arrested three men on the charge of black-marketing tocilizumab and remdesivir used in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
A police team, led by senior inspector Padmakar Ghanwat of the the local crime branch, seized one vial of tocilizumab and six vials of remdesivir from Dattatreya Londhe (35), Aditya Wagh (25) and Amol Munde (25).“Londhe and Wagh were taken into custody from Daund, while Munde was arrested from Vashi,” Ghanwat told TOI.
Ghanwat said the suspects were trying to sell tocilizumab for Rs1.5 lakh and remdesivir for Rs25,000, per vial, to the relatives of patients undergoing treatment for Covid-19 in Daund. “We have also recovered Rs52,000, a car and a scooter from the trio,” Ghanwat said.
Tocilizumab is an imported injection, which costs over Rs45,000 in India. Ghanwat said prima facie probe revealed that Munde had procured the vials from New Mumbai with the help of a person related to a pharmacy. “We will arrest that person soon,” Ghanwat said.