Chennai, May 19(BPNS)

Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday commenced selling of Remdesivir anti viral drugs directly to private hospitals. Chief minister MK Stalin distributed the first batch containing 960 vials to 25 hospitals at a sale counter which was set up at Nehru Stadium in Chennai.

Tamil Nadu was facing a sale of black market of the remdesivir drug as private hospitals had called upon the relatives of the patient’s to buy the drug directly. The drug was priced in the black market at Rs 40,000a vial and this has led to a rethinking among the policy makers in the government leading to the government directly supplying the medicine to the private hospitals. Now private hospitals are not allowed to ask the relatives of patient’s to  buy the drug from the market.

343 private hospitals have registered in the portal( tnmsc.tn.gov.in) which was launched by the state health department for selling the drug to the hospitals. 151 of these hospitals have registered remdesivir drug by submitting required documents (patient’s medical records and ID proofs).

Tamil Nadu health department in an official release said that after verification, a  representative of these hospitals can collect the drug from the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) counters set up at Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Salem, Trichy and Tirunelveli.