As Covid scene improves, drop in sale of drugs in Visakhapatnam district

VISAKHAPATNAM: The medical shops in Visakhapatnam district, particularly the city, witnessed a drop in the sale of Covid19 medicines from the second week of this month as the second wave of the pandemic began subsiding.

The district witnessed a panic situation in April and May, with people seen in long queues in front of medical shops. Even the shops located in remote places did brisk business.

“Some purchased drugs out of necessity due to the presence of multiple patients in the family and others for maintaining a stock in their homes in case a situation arose. In all, there was a spike of 40 per cent in the sale on an average. In some places, this was as high as 80 per cent. Even generic shops also did good business,’’ said president of the Visakhapatnam Chemists Welfare Society Baggam Srinivas.

The sales began falling with the drop in C-positive cases. The reduction in sales was of around 30 per cent since the second week of this month, he told Deccan Chronicle on Sunday.

The district has 4,000 medical shops. Of them, 2,300 are located in the city. The business turnaround is Rs 1,500 crore per annum, Srinivas said.

He said people went on a buying spree for paracetamol, azithromycin, ecosprin, multi-vitamin tablets, anti-coagulants, heparin and also the medicines related to cardiac problems and diabetes. This was apart from the Remdesivir vials sold in black by some shops.

Some retailers said there was huge demand for immunity boosters and good medicated brands of face masks and sanitizers.

“Sale of regular medicines also went up due to panic but it has come down,’’ said assistant director of drug control administration K Rajitha.

Now the patients are managing with medicines being supplied by the hospitals and covid-care centres. Only those who are under treatment at home are buying medicines and their number is also coming down.

Srinivas said medical shops were gearing up to strengthen stock of medicines that could be used in the event of the third wave, particularly drugs related to paediatrics. “The drug administration recently took stock of the availability of paediatric medicines in shops. We are waiting for instructions to procure the stocks,’’ he said.