Many social media handles are claiming that the Narsipatnam Government Hospital in Andhra Pradesh is giving expired Remdisivi, a life-saving drug for many who are suffering from severe cases of coronavirus infection.
A Twitter user shared a video showing that the Remdesivir injection which has an expiry date of March 27, 2021, is being sold with a new label on it. The video is shared with a caption, “Why doctors are administering expired medicines in Narsipatnam Govt hospital? Where are the controls? Why expired medicines are stored in the shelves? Are we playing with lives of People? Do authorities threat me as I am raising voice?”
The link to the post can be seen here.
Many similar posts are widely being shared online, which can be seen here and here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact-check and found the claim to be misleading.
We found that a similar post associated with Maharashtra also went viral in April 2021, claiming that hospitals were selling expired Remdesivir injections. The link to the post can be found here.
On searching with the keyword, ‘expired Remdesivir injection’ we came across a news report by The Hindu, published on June 3, 2021. According to the report, Andhra Pradesh’s state government denied the viral claim.
The report quoted, Assistant Director, Drug Control, Visakhapatnam, Rajitha, who said that the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) has increased the shelf-life of Remdesivir from 6 months to 12 months.
The New Indian Express quoted Assistant Director (Drug Control) K Rajitha, who said, “Remedesivir injection is a new drug and the Drugs Control General of India (DCGI) had initially given instructions to the manufacturer to fix shelf life and expiry date to six months based on the stability studies submitted earlier by the manufacturer.”
She also said, “Later, the stability studies are continued and as per stability studies data submitted by the manufacturer, the DCGI has given permission to the manufacturer to extend the shelf life and expiry date up to 12 months. Hence, the version that expired injections were administered is not true.”
According to the United States Foods and Drugs Administration (US FDA), the shelf-life approved for Remdesivir injection is 12 months.
As the label in the viral video shows that it was manufactured in September 2020, thus according to the new DGCI norms, the expiry of the product is September 2021.
Andhra Pradesh’s government Fact-Check team also took to Twitter to debunk the claim.
దాన్ని అనుసరించి, పొడిగించిన సమయాన్ని ఇంజెక్షన్లపై బ్యాచ్ నెంబర్ తో సహా ముద్రించిన తయారీదారులు. ఈ విషయాన్ని దాచిపెట్టి ఉద్దేశపూర్వకంగా కాలం చెల్లిన ఇంజెక్షన్లు అంటూ కొందరు దుష్ప్రచారం చేస్తున్నారు. దయచేసి గమనించగలరు.
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— FactCheck.AP.Gov.in (@FactCheckAPGov) June 3, 2021
Hence, hospitals were not giving expired Remdesivir injections, as claimed by social media.
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