Remdesivir procured at high prices to save lives: BMC

BJP alleges corruption, but Mumbai authorities say Haffkine tender had no response

geetanjali

Geetanjali Minhas | April 16, 2021 | Mumbai


#Maharashtra   #Mumbai   #BMC   #healthcare   #Remdesivir   #Covid-19  


Countering the opposition BJP’s allegations of corruption in the procurement of Remdesivir, a critical anti-viral injection often prescribed for Covid-19 patients, the BrihanMumbai municipal corporation (BMC) has clarified that its decision to procure the drug was aimed at saving  lives even if it meant spending some extra money to procure it.

Remdesivir, said to be a life-saving drug for some serious patients, is in high demand in Maharashtra, which has been registering upwards of 50,000 new cases every day for some time. It is also in short supply, with reports of astronomical prices in the black market.

The BMC has procured Remdesivir at Rs 1568 per vial as against the state-owned Haffkine Institute’s order price of Rs 565 and the wholesale price of Rs 1200. That promoted BJP to demand a probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. But the civic authorities have refuted the allegations as incorrect.

The BMC has said that after Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation placed an order to procure 57,100 vials of Remdesivir at the rate of Rs 665 on April 1, 2021 and received no supply, BMC on April 5 floated  a tender for purchase of 2,00,000 vials of Remdesivir which was due on April 7.

A single bid was received from Mylan Laboratories on April 7 at 4.00 pm with the price of Rs 1,568 inclusive of GST per each vial. At that time BMC had stocks of 10,471 vials which would last for barely three-four days. That day BMC had approached Cipla for supplies of around 10,000 vials and Cipla had expressed its inability to commit supply of any vial immediately.

Given the high demand, Mylan refused to reduce its bid price. With more than 17,431 beds under the BMC occupied by Covid patients on April 7, it went ahead and placed an order to procure 2,00,000  vials of Remdesivir out of which 25,000 vials were received immediately.

[BJP meanwhile has cited a letter dated April 9 from Haffkine to Cadilla Healthcare confirming its bid for 57,100 vials at Rs 665.84 each for a total price of Rs 3,80,19,464.]

As per BMC, the Haffkine order of 57,100 vials at the rate of Rs.665 has not elicited any response so far and no supplies have been made. It also said that a false perception has been created that Remdesivir has been procured at very high rates.

“It was imperative to act fast and decisively to procure Remdesivir on 7th April 2021 or MCGM would have faced a huge crisis to treat patients. Any delay would have resulted in Remdesivir going out to other cities and states of India, bringing a bad name to MCGM especially when Mumbai is the financial capital of India. Between money and human lives, MCGM opted to save all possible human lives even if it meant spending extra amount of money for securing 2,00,000 vials of Remdesivir,” said municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal.

The BMC also points out that on April 14, the Pune divisional commissioner had requested it (BMC) to spare 20,000 vials of Remdesivir at its purchase price of Rs 1568 per vial, saying that Mylan had declined to supply due to prior commitments and lack of stocks.

Also, the BMC has pointed out that Mylan has received orders from several authorities including the Surat municipal corporation, the Satara district hospital, the commissioner of medical education in Madhya Pradesh, the NHM mission director in Assam, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and Gujarat Medical Services Corporation.

Comments

 

Other News

Boost to offshore wind energy projects

In a major decision, the Government has decided to grant waiver of ISTS charges to Off-Shore Wind Projects and extend the waiver to Green Hydrogen/Green Ammonia. This decision has been taken to facilitate wider execution of offshore wind energy initiatives, to promote the expansion of Green Hydrogen / Gree

Duty of stakeholders to provide cost effective, alternate energy fuels: Gadkari

Urging use of alternative and cost effective fuels to reduce pollution caused by vehicles, union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said finding cost-effective fuels is the need of the hour and underlined that use of fuels like bio-CNG and green hydrogen help in protecting the e

Record production of rice, wheat, and sugarcane estimated

The foodgrain production of 3305.34 lakh tonnes is estimated in the current agricultural year 2022-23 – higher by 149.18 LMT as compared to the previous year, according to the Third Advance Estimates of production of major crops released by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare.

India`s ‘AIRAWAT’ ranks 75th in top 500 Supercomputing List

The AI Supercomputer ‘AIRAWAT’, installed at C-DAC, Pune, has been ranked 75th in the world. It was declared so in the 61st edition of Top 500 Global Supercomputing List on Tuesday at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany. It puts India on top of AI S

Ocean Dialogue a great opportunity for G20 members

The ongoing third Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group G20 meeting (May 21-23) has focused on three aspects: land degradation and reclamation of mining areas, Blue Economy and sustainable ocean management and resource sufficiency and circular economy. Leena Nandan, secretary,

Semi hi-speed trains, buses could be primary alternative to cars

We are not paying sufficient attention to the rapidly growing oil imports (from pre-Covid-19 to post-Covid, in 2022). They surged from 102 million tons (MT) in 2019-20 to 168 MT in 2022-23, an increase of 68%.   India is the largest importer of oil in the world, and, at current rate, we

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter