Uppal's Life Care Hospital co-owners among six held for selling expired Remdesivir

Police have recovered Rs 5.52 lakh cash, which is suspected to have been earned from the sale of expired Remdesivir injection.

Police said on April 21, Md Aswaq Ahmed, Incharge of Radiology department at Image Hospital reported that his friend Abed's uncle Md Mazar, 62 was infected with COVID-19 and undergoing treatment at Ayush Hospital in Dilsukhnagar.

He was in need of Remdesivir Injection, which was not available in the hospital. Immediately, he arranged six Remdesivir injections at Rs. 16,200, each containing 100 mg Deserem manufactured by Mylan.

The same day another person Sajid needed three injections for his relative. The injections were arranged for Rs 16,200 each.

After receiving the vials, Abed examined them and found a sticker affixed. On the sticker, the manufacturing date was mentioned as 24.09.2020 and expiry date 23.08.2021 and the MRP was Rs.4800. When he removed the sticker, he noticed the actual label on the vial. The actual manufacturing date was 24.09.2020 and the expiry date 23.03.2021 and MRP Rs. 4800.

They called up Tulasi Srikanth who had sold them the vials and questioned him about the expired drugs. Under pressure, Srikanth named Suresh Kumar of Akshara Hospital, BN Reddy Nagar. When Suresh Kumar was questioned, he named Shiva Krishna, a doctor at Life Care Hospital, Uppal.

Investigation revealed that Tulasi Srikanth purchased 11 injections from Shiva Krishna, who is the Partner at Life Care Hospital, for Rs.10,000. He sold six injections to the complainants -- Abed and Sajid --at Rs.16,200 each.

Further, it was found that Telugupally Chiranjeevi, a Pharma distributor who supplied medicines, drugs, masks, and sanitizers to Ch Venkat alias Venkanna purchased 50 injections each for Rs. 7,000. Chilukuri Venkat alias Venkanna is the brother of Ganji Shiva Krishna, who is another partner of New Life Care Hospital, Uppal.

Chiranjeevi purchased 60 injections at Rs.4,500 from Lakkisetty Suresh Kumar, who is a Grade II Senior Pharmacist working at Andhra Pradesh Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation.

Chiranjeevi diverted 60 expired Remedisiver 100 mg Desrem IV Mylan injections and sold them to the accused in Hyderabad.

Police have arrested all six accused including Lakkisetty Suresh Kumar from Anantapur, Telugupally Chiranjeevi of Secunderabad, Chilukuri Venkat from BN Reddy Nagar, Ganji Shiva Krishna from Boduppal, Karra Suresh Kumar of Balapur and Tulasi Srikanth from Gurramguda