Government-owned HLL Lifecare Limited had ordered Remdesivir injections from 7 different Indian pharma companies. Sadly, the distribution came late in June due to which many citizens had no option but to buy Remdesivir in the black market by paying as much as Rs 10,000 to Rs 80,000 per injection.
HLL distributed the injections in the month of June when the Covid-19 cases had come down significantly. Tamil Nadu received the highest number of injections which is 5,14,612 whereas the state of Tripura received only 720 injections, the lowest.
In the case of Maharashtra, although it was allocated the highest no of injections i.e. 5,36,284, it received only 3,29,700 due to Cipla Limited sending only 1,47,332 injections out of the allocated 3,53,916. Surprisingly Maharashtra is the only state that did not receive the allocated quantity from Cipla Limited. Uttrakhand on the other hand did not receive the allocated stocks mainly due to the landslides and lack of connectivity in the month of June.
Overall due to complete transparency with respect to declaring the number of Covid-19 patients by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu governments, they have received the highest number of Remdesivir injections whereas states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat were allotted lesser quantity mainly because of poor reporting of covid patients, Gujarat received only 5,184 injections.
Besides with reference to purchasing vaccines, HLL has purchased a total of 46 crore doses of Covishield worth Rs 7,245 Cr from Serum Institute of India, as well as they have purchased 26 Cr doses worth Rs 4095 Cr from Bharat Biotech, unfortunately on the query of distribution of these vaccines HLL has not given any information.
According to Activist Jeetendra Ghadge of The Young Whistleblowers Foundation, “The governments across India should learn from their mistakes and be transparent and accountable when it’s come to declaring the Covid-19 causalities because it’s ultimately the people of that state who will pay the price if the figures are not disclosed accurately. We also need to be prepared to treat new symptoms of Covid infections that might occur in the third wave.”