Mumbai: The controversy over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allegedly hoarding remdesivir in Maharashtra got a fresh twist Tuesday, with the Nationalist Congress Party alleging that a local BJP leader, whose family has a presence in the pharmaceutical sector, sold the drug directly to people.
According to the NCP, the BJP’s Shirish Chaudhari, who hails from Amalner in Jalgaon, was found to have sold large stocks of Cadila Healthcare’s Remdac and Bruck Pharma’s Corovir to people in Nandurbar and Jalgaon districts.
Cadila Healthcare is one of the seven companies that has the approval from US-based Gilead, which holds the worldwide patent for the drug, to manufacture and market remdesivir, an antiviral drug repurposed for Covid-19 treatment in India. Bruck Pharma only has permission to export the drug and does not have marketing approval in India.
Chaudhari allegedly distributed the drug before 15 April while the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency approval to Bruck Pharma to distribute remdesivir locally only on 17 April.
Chaudhari is a former independent MLA from the Amalner constituency and had contested the 2019 assembly polls on a BJP ticket. He was also part of a BJP delegation led by Pravin Darekar, leader of opposition in the state legislative council, who met FDA Minister Rajendra Shingne last week at the minister’s residence.
The BJP leaders, accompanied by a representative of Bruck Pharma, sought permission for Remdesivir exporters to be able to sell their stock in the domestic market in the state.
Speaking to the media Tuesday, (NCP) Minister Nawab Malik, who is also the party spokesperson, said Chaudhari hoarded the drug in a hotel he owns.
“BJP leader Shirish Chaudhari distributed remdesivir in Nandurbar,” he said. “There was a stock of thousands of injections in his hotel, Heera Executive. Did Shirish Chaudhari and his staff have the FDA’s permission to do this?”
While Chaudhari did not respond to ThePrint’s phone calls and text messages, his brother, Ravindra Chaudhari, chief managing director of the Heera Business Group — a family-run business with interests in trading, reselling, pharmaceuticals, chemical industry, cosmetics and hospitality among others — told ThePrint that the remdesivir stock was not procured illegally but was part of the Heera Group’s business transactions, and was distributed at a subsidised cost to people as a social service.
Following the controversy, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government late Tuesday evening transferred the FDA Commissioner Abhimanyu Kale who had been facing flak from within the government for granting Bruck Pharma permission to sell Remdesivir to non-government entities as well on 17 April.
Kale had issued another letter Monday (19 April) restricting Bruck Pharma from selling to non-government entities and had even written to the Nandurbar district collector directing the office to conduct against Chaudhari but he was transferred Tuesday.
Kale did not respond to ThePrint’s calls and text messages.
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‘Will never be able to help people if we get stuck in technicalities’
On 1 April, Shirish Chaudhari and his associates allegedly started locally advertising that they planned to distribute Zydus-Cadila’s remdesivir injection at a subsidised cost of Rs 899 at two pharmacies in Amalner, ThePrint has learnt. At that time, the injection was priced at Rs 2,800.
Pankajbhau Chaudhari who works at Amalner’s Indian Medical and General Stores, one of the two pharmacies advertised, told The Print, “We were initially selling Zydus’ remdesivir at a subsidised cost of Rs 900. We sold around 200 vials, but that stock got over soon. People desperately wanted the drug. So, Shirishdada managed to bring in export quality stock, Corovir, of Bruck Pharma, around 12 or 13 April.”
“I don’t know how much he bought it for, but we were selling it at Rs 1,200-1,300. We must have distributed 300-400 injections. But then there was the question of whether they have the permission to sell in Maharashtra,” he added. “So, we waited and did not get more stock. Now the whole thing has gotten mired in politics when people really need the injections.”
On 14 April, Anil Bhaidas Patil, NCP MLA from Amalner, wrote a letter to FDA Minister Shingane, saying Bruck Pharma’s remdesivir was being distributed in some parts of his constituency and asked whether the company had the permission to sell the injection in the country.
“Boxes and boxes of the drug were stored at Hotel Heera Executive, which Chaudhari owns, at Nandurbar,” Patil told ThePrint. “In Amalner, his karyakartas were distributing it at pharmacies anywhere between Rs 1,500 and Rs 3,000. It was like a fair.”
Ravindra Chaudhari said the Corovir stock from Bruck Pharma was part of the Heera Group’s business dealings and the consignment had come before the Centre banned the export of remdesivir on 11 April.
“Our subsidiary companies are into exports and some of our associate companies, including Bruck Pharma, export the drug,” Ravindra Chaudhari said. “We got stock from 5 April to 10 April. On the 11th, exports were banned.”
“As a public representative, we tried to do what we can for people. If you are in my place… people are dying because of a shortage. One injection is being sold for 25,000 in the black market, so if I have a big export consignment lying with me, why will I not give it to people though it means suffering a business loss?” he asked, adding he and his brother distributed “thousands of injections and ended up helping a lot of poor people”.
“If we had gotten stuck in technicalities, this wouldn’t have been possible,” he said.
MVA-BJP conflict over remdesivir procurement
Over the last few days, there has been a raging controversy over the procurement of remdesivir between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi and the BJP.
Last week, the Mumbai Police picked up a director of Bruck Pharma for questioning about a huge quantity of the drug being stored in Mumbai.
Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis and Pravin Darekar had then rushed to the police station, saying they were unnecessarily harassing the company because the BJP had taken the initiative to get the anti-viral drug to Maharashtra in times of a shortage.
BJP leaders initially said that they were planning to buy 50,000 remdesivir vials from Bruck Pharma at a total cost of Rs 4.75 crore and hand over the stock to the state government for free distribution among people. The state government, however, questioned how a political party could insert itself into the supply chain of an essential drug, while BJP leaders criticised the MVA for choosing to politicise the issue.
BJP sources told ThePrint that the party had even partially paid for the remdesivir consignment.
In an interview to The Indian Express, Fadnavis, however, later said that the BJP was never planning to buy remdesivir on its own and Darekar had asked the FDA to purchase the drug from Bruck Pharma.
On Tuesday, the BJP stayed silent on the allegations against Chaudhari, but slammed the MVA for not reining in the black marketing of remdesivir and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into it.
BJP MLC Prasad Lad said he had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray asking for a CBI inquiry.
“NCP MLAs distributed the drug through Pawar Charitable Trust and at the local level in their capacities. Where did they get the stock from and who gave them permission?” he asked. “Whatever help the BJP plans to extend is not going to be direct. It is going to be through the state government.”
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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When youth congress helps people, they are angels. When BJp helps people, then it becomes illegal ?
What prevented Government of Maharashtra and its ministers to approach exporters Remdesivir and persuade them to supply the surplus stock of the medicine to Maharashtra? It is a crisis situation. They should have shown urgency and agility to procure stock. The government should declare how much stock has been procured by the government agencies from exporters of Remdesivir. Instead, they are indulging in worthless and avoidable dirty politics. This is highly condemnable.
If this is the behaviour of our politicians during a pandemc situation, just think how many currency notes might have got exchanged through the backdoors of our BANKS during the DEMONITISATION DRIVE
In a Pandemic situation if politicians are behaving like this , just imagine during the DEMONITASION PERIOD HOW MANY CURRENCY NOTES MIGHT HAVE GOT EXCHANGED THROUGH THE BACKDOORS !!!!!
Fate of the poor.
Fake news. ….. available exclusively on The Print.