Mumbai - The vials were seized and the FDA would supply them to hospitals.
About 2,000 vials of Remdesivir were recovered from an exporter’s outlet in Andheri and New Marine Lines in Mumbai, the police announced here on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip-off, the police and the state’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted the raids on the two places. The vials were seized and the FDA would supply them to hospitals.
The vials were originally manufactured for exports, but after the government imposed a ban on overseas sales, they were stocked instead of being sold in the domestic market. Remdesivir is used to treat Covid-19 patients.
According to Abhimanyu Kale, the FDA commissioner, it has given permission to three exporters to sell the injection in Maharashtra.
The state’s medical education and research directorate had earlier wanted to buy half a million vials from an exporter, which however, refused to accept the order claiming that it was not authorised to sell it in the domestic market.
The Maharashtra government then stepped in and gave emergency approval to three exporters to sell their products domestically.
PTI file