Remdesivir black marketing busted in Jigni; Hospital's name dragged through mud

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious health crisis as patients are faced with an acute shortage of oxygen beds, ICU and Remdesivir drug. Amidst such a crisis, shocking incidents of fake Remdesivir drugs, trade of the anti-viral drug in the black market for exorbitant prices have come to the fore. Another such incident of Remdesivir black marketing was busted in Bengaluru.

A private hospital in South Bengaluru, ACE Suhas' name popped up in the Remdesivir black marketing. A certain fraction of local media and local police have blatantly named the hospital of the wrongdoing when investigations have revealed that one of the hospital employees and a visiting consultant acted unilaterally in the illicit act. The hospital has made its stand clear and even welcomed a thorough probe into the matter, but urged against jumping to early conclusions based on mere suspicions.

The hospital's senior management released a statement:

It has come to our notice that an employee of our Hospital Mr Rakshit & a visiting consultant Dr Farman Ali have been caught by the police for selling Remdesivir in black market at exorbitant rates. The Management & Doctors of this hospital condemn this and we welcome the police investigation which has been initiated in this regard.

On our part we have a complete list of Remdesivir injections supplied to us & the patients to whom it was used. The guilty needs to be punished in this case & we will cooperate with authorities completely in this regard.

The cost of stepping up to help during pandemic?

It's an irony that at a time when ACE Suhas hospital is helping hundreds of COVID positive patients through its ICU and oxygen beds, some section of the local media and local police are trying very hard to tarnish the name of a hospital in an incident where a doctor has unilaterally taken a decision of doing the wrongful act.

The hospital has already agreed and is more than willing to cooperate in the entire process, but requests the local media and the police to try and understand the sensitivity of the time that we are in. At this juncture, the hospital is needed to be up and running. These cases can be dealt with on merit and everybody guilty should be charged and put behind bars as required by the law.