Remdesivir maker coughed up Rs 60 cr for bonds after raids

Aksheev Thakur

New Delhi, March 15

Hetero Pharma, a drug manufacturer raided by the Income Tax Department for alleged unaccounted income of Rs 550 crore–Rs 142 crore seized in cash–purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 60 crore, shows the data published by the Election Commission on its website.

The raids were conducted on October 9, 2021, while Hetero purchased the bonds in April 2022, and July and October 2023. Based out of Hyderabad with manufacturing units in Russia, China and other countries, Hetero shot to limelight during Covid-19 after it started manufacturing Remdesivir, a drug that was in huge demand during the pandemic.

Hyderabad-based vaccine manufacturers Bharat Biotech and Biological E also feature in the list of firms that bought bonds worth Rs 10 crore and Rs 5 crore. Both companies had received government approvals for manufacturing Covid vaccine.

There are 37 pharmaceutical and healthcare companies that bought bonds worth around Rs 903 crore. Among the healthcare firms, Yashodha Super-Speciality Hospital is the top purchaser of bonds worth Rs 162 crore. Seventeen bonds were bought in 2021, 89 in 2022 and 56 in 2023.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories purchased bonds worth Rs 80 crore, followed by Torrent Pharmaceuticals (Rs 77.5 crore), Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma (Rs 69.25 crore) and Cipla (Rs 39.2 crore). Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, the founder of Biocon Ltd, spent Rs 10 crore. Ahmedabad-headquartered Torrent Pharmaceuticals bought 91 bonds worth Rs 77.5 crore.

Meanwhile, as many as 11,671 bonds of the highest Rs 1 crore denomination were purchased in nearly a four-year period beginning April 12, 2019, and these accounted for a whopping 96 per cent of the overall value of all such bonds bought for making donations to various political parties. Mostly corporates went for the top-denomination bonds.