COVID-19: Pune’s divisional commissioner approaches BMC to buy 20,000 vials of Remdesivir

BMC was heavily criticised for buying the injection at almost double the price. Representation pic

With the entire country facing a shortage of the drug Remdesivir - an important medicine needed in COVID-19 treatment - the civic body had paid almost double the price to procure it. With the BMC expected to receive around 2 lakh vials of the injection, the Divisional Commissioner of Pune has raised a demand for 20,000 vials and is ready to pay the civic body the same price at which it procured the medicine. The civic body has not decided if it will give the injections yet.

While the state reels under a shortage and after facing heavy criticism for acquiring it at a higher price, the BMC is not being approached by other districts to share some of the stock. While Mumbai has been recording 8,000 to 10,000 cases daily, the civic body is worried about the increasing cases. It acquired the huge stock anticipating this very rise in the spread of the virus.

The Divisional Commissioner of Pune in the letter to the BMC has said that none of the manufacturers has enough stock and as the district has already been hit with a lot of cases, the few vials will be very helpful. The letter says that they are ready to pay the same amount BMC paid for the medicine. The BMC paid around R1,568 per vial for the injections. They are administered to patients only in civic hospitals.

Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said, "We have not yet decided whether we will be giving them the stock."