Source: Pixabay (Public Domain)
Taking cognizance of the serious charges, a sessions court on Wednesday denied the bail application of a man arrested by the Mumbai Crime Branch for allegedly selling counterfeit versions of tocilizumab, an immunosuppressant drug that is being tested for use in the treatment for COVID-19.
The man identified as Ajay Shyamlal Nasa, a 40-year-old resident of Delhi was arrested by the Crime Branch after 15 vials of the injection, were seized from a co-accused named Azam Nasif Khan (30). During the investigation, Khan revealed that he had procured them from Shyamlal Nasa, a pharmacist, who was allegedly involved in the manufacturing and distribution of the counterfeited drug.
The police had sent the samples to the pharmaceutical company Roche, who is the original manufacturer in Switzerland, to check their authenticity and found them to be fake.
The accused has been booked under the relevant section of the IPC act and is currently in jail.
According to a report published in Mumbai Mirror, Nasa bought one original drug from a place in Gurugram for Rs 58,000 for the sake of duplicating the vials.
He then added injections of the steroid dexamethasone and Deriphyllin(a medicine used to treat asthma) along with distilled water into the vials. He placed orders of similar empty vials and made fake labels and boxes of the original drug.
This isn’t the first time fake drugs are being rebranded as Tocilizumab. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA) in Gujarat investigated a case involving the rebranding and selling of synthetic steroids and hormone mix as counterfeit for Tocilizumab, branded as Actemra.
About Tocilizumab
Tocilizumab, sold as Actemra/RoActemra is approved in 116 countries for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Actemra/RoActemra is a first-in-class interleukin-6 inhibitor that is being tested for the treatment of patients developing severe complications from coronavirus (Covid-19).
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