Mumbai: Bruck Pharma Director Who Agreed To Supply 60,000 Remdesivir Vials, Taken To Police Station For Questioning

Director of Bruck Pharma, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Daman, was yesterday (18 April) summoned by the Mumbai Police for questioning after it found a "huge cache of Remdesivir".

The cops alleged that this Remdesivir stockpile of 60,000 vials was going to be flown out of India despite and export ban as demand for the drug skyrockets amid rising Covid-19 cases.

As it turns out, the truth of the matter was that former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had coordinated with Bruck Pharma for the supply of Remdesivir among patients in Maharashtra.

As per Fadnavis, he had requested Bruck Pharma for supplying Remdesivir but they were unable to comply due to a lack of FDA approval. Fadnavis then coordinated with Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya and secured the approval yesterday evening, after a span of four days.

Fadnavis then alleged that he came to know about the Bruck Pharma official's arrest (the cops have now claimed that they only called him in for questioning) he rushed to the police station and showed the FDA permission letter to the cops.

"We wanted to distribute the drug through the state government. As a noble gesture we decided to foot the entire cost of Rs 4.75 crore. Fadnavis was to hand over the Remdesivir stock to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray", BJP leader Praveen Darekar has said.

The cops have claimed that this plan was not communicated to them and that they had "acted in good faith" to call the supplier for an inquiry.