Ahmedabad: Get you own remdesivir: Hospitals

Ahmedabad: Scarcity of remdesivir which has been plaguing Covid-19 treatment for past few days got more acute on Saturday. It was reported that wary of the shortage, many hospitals were admitting patients with a precondition — if hospital is not able to manage remdesivir, patients’ relatives will have to manage the same!

Sanket Shah, a Satellite resident, said that he had arranged four shots for himself and his father in past four days. “A private hospital admitted my father on the condition that if he needs remdesivir, they would not be able to arrange it, it would have to be procured by us,” he said. “Moreover, when I started my home quarantine with moderate symptoms as I could not secure a bed, I had approached a hospital for homecare package. The first condition they had was to get remdesivir – or else they would not be able to help.” Shah’s four family members are either hospitalized or home quarantined with Covid-19 infection.

Meanwhile, the drying up of stocks left many in lurch. Vadodara resident Nirmit Gosai’s father-in-law is hospitalized with Covid-19 and prescribed remdesivir for lung infection. “I had all my hopes pinned on the Zydus Hospital’s medicine counter in Ahmedabad and came all the way from Vadodara on Saturday but learnt the hospital has shut distribution,” Gosai said.

Zydus Hospital Group announced the non-availability of remdesivir injections at its Ahmedabad hospital late on Friday night. Several people hunting for remdesivir did not know about Zydus Hospital’s late-night announcement. They learnt of it only after reaching the hospital. Many like Gosai had come from other cities. “I came from Kalol because I needed four injections for my grandmother,” said Pragnesh Suthar, who too had reached Zydus Hospital on Saturday morning. “I called several stockists who asked for Rs 36,000 for six vials,” Suthar said. “How will I get so much money?”

Stockists said that with such erratic and inadequate supply, they cannot meet the growing demand for the drug. The majority of the stockists across Ahmedabad and Vadodara ran out of remdesivir by Saturday afternoon.