Hunting Remdesivir: Kin scramble as pvt hosps, pharmas run out
New Delhi: India Following a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections in the past week, demand for the antiviral drug Remdesivir — used for treating the disease's symptoms, has shot up enough to cause an acute shortage here with families of patients scrambling to find a dose.
Citizens depending on public healthcare and those depending upon their local hospitals and pharmacies have been the worst hit. There are also reports of Remdesevir vials being sold on the black market for as much as five times the retail cost.
A local resident whose brother-in-law has been admitted at Maharaja Agrasen Hospital in Punjabi Bagh for COVID-19 since April 10 was asked to arrange for Remdesivir injections on his own because the hospital had run out of stock.
"We checked with two more hospitals in the area, Balaji and MGH, and with all chemists in the vicinity but to no avail. We then asked every pharmacist or chemist we could reach out to if there was any way to purchase even a single dose of the drug. We were asked to shell out Rs 5,500, even Rs 10,000 and as much as Rs 50,000 for one dose," he said.
They found a dose for Rs 5,400 hours later. "At that time, we were desperate. It was 10:30 - 10:45 pm and the patient's condition was deteriorating steadily. Since then, whenever we ask for a bill to file our insurance claim, the pharmacy only asks us to call later," he said.
While there is no uniform price for Remdesivir at present, with the MRP ranging from Rs 900 to Rs 5,000 per vial, that is set to change now with drug manufacturers volunteering to cut prices and ramp up production of the antiviral drug but this will not effect change in the supply chain for another few weeks.
Millennium Post spoke to hospitals and pharmacies across Delhi and the general consensus is that not just private pharmacies and chemists but several small to mid-sized hospitals have also run out of Remdesivir.
Currently, only major government facilities admitted to having the drug and most of them have limited stocks set aside only for in-house patients. AIIMS said that it has a sufficient stockpile of Remdesivir and other drugs required for COVID-19 treatment but sources at Safdarjung Hospital said their stocks were limited and will last a day or two at the most.
Several private hospitals said that they did not have Remdesivir stocks even though they currently have admitted several COVID-19 patients who need the drug for their recovery.
