Bid to smuggle Covid drugs to Iraq, 3 held

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, July 28

The Gurugram drug control department has busted a drug-smuggling cartel that not just hoarded Covid treatment medicines, but was to smuggle these to Iraq in an upcoming Vande Bharat flight.

Three foreigners, including two Iraqi men and an Uzbek woman, all working as translators, were nabbed from Sector 47 along with Remdesivir (48 vials), Fabiflu (55 strips) and Lopikast (18 packs) drugs.

Remdesivir costs Rs 5,400 per vial here and is reportedly sold for around Rs 1 lakh in Iraq. Similarly, Fabiflu strip is priced Rs 2,500 in India and sells for Rs 8,000 in Iraq. Lopikast vial costs Rs 3,990 here and goes for around Rs 15,000 in Iraq. The seizure has also brought the city’s Covid hospitals under scanner as drugs like Remdesivir are directly provided to hospitals by the manufacturing company after verifying patient details. The local drug department too is provided with a daily-dispensing report of these drugs. The police are probing whether any hospital helped the accused in procuring the drugs.

“We got a tip-off and busted the racket. The accused procured the drugs at MRP from Gurugram and wanted to send these to Iraq,” said Gurugram Drug Controller Amandeep Chauhan.

Sources said the cartel had somehow procured the traveller list of the forthcoming flight schedule for Iraq and planned to send the medicines in small batches with Iraqi nationals.

State Drug Controller Narender Ahuja said all district departments were on alert over black-marketing attempts of Covid drugs in Haryana. “We have arranged direct company-to-hospital supply chains to stop black-marketing. Errants would face the music,” he said.

Remdesivir sells for Rs 1L

• Two Iraqi men & an Uzbek woman tried to cash in on Covid drug crisis in Iraq
• Remdesivir costs Rs5,400 per vial in India, while it sells for around Rs1 lakh in Iraq
• Similarly, Fabiflu strip and Lopikast vial cost Rs2,500 and Rs3,990 here and fetch Rs 8,000 and Rs15,000 in Iraq