Mumbai Crime: Chemist arrested for selling fake COVID-19 treatment drug

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Mumbai's Crime Branch unit on Wednesday arrested a chemist from Delhi's Govindpuri Colony for allegedly making fake Tocilizumab, a drug used in the treatment of COVID-19. Police officials said they were investigating a case in which they seized 15 vials of the drug.

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According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, the police were inquiring into a case wherein they had seized 15 injections of Tocilizumab. Senior inspector Nandkumar Gopale, Crime Branch (Unit IX), said, "We were investigating this gang, which was overpricing the injection."

After the seizure, police officials sent some samples to Rosh Products India Private Limited, the authorised distributor in India of the injection, which is manufactured in Switzerland. The distributor confirmed that the injections were fake. Later, the accusedwas taken into custody.

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"The accused took one original injection and later ordered a Uttarakhand company to make same bottles. He used to fill asthma medicine Dexona and Deriphyllin along with distilled water in the injection and label it as Tocilizumab," SI Gopale added.

The Crime Branch authorities are trying to establish the number of injections the accused has circulated in the market, he said.

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