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Excess demand - Medical shops in Chennai minting money now by selling facemasks, oximeters, hand sanitizers etc at high prices
Posted on: 30/Apr/2021 9:20:13 AM
Making hay while the sun shines!!
The medical shops are now doing this exactly. The second Covid-19 wave has taken India by storm now and many medical stores have increased the prices of facemasks, hand sanitizers and pulse oximeters etc. The prices of these important items have shot up now due to excess demand from the public.
It is learnt that the disposable surgical face masks are being sold for Rs 10 per piece and a single pack of 100 masks are sold for Rs 1000. Truth is that the actual cost of the pack is Rs 500 only.
It is now revealed that many private pharmacies have been selling surgical face masks without MRP and by putting their own prices. An amount of Rs 500 is being collected by the medical shops for selling about 250ml of hand sanitizers. These hand sanitizers could give full protection against Coronavirus infection is well known to us. The cost of gel based sanitizers is Rs 700 now.
For checking the oxygen levels frequently, pulse oximeters play a huge role and people now buy them from various medical stores. The demand for oximeters has now touched the roof. The actual cost of oximeter is Rs 1000 to Rs 1200 but many pharmacies demand Rs 2500 to Rs 3500 from the public.
Information is that the Pharmaceutical Council of India has not fixed any rate for these medical devices and hence they are sold for abnormal prices now beyond MRP.
For the last one year, face masks, hand sanitizers and pulse oximeters have become essential items for the people for protecting themselves from the deadly and rapid spreading Covid-19 infection. Their prices did not matter that much as their use was not widespread. Now, the regularisation of these is being processed as they have been categorised as medical devices.
According to the state drug control authorities, action would not be possible if the people buy medical devices that do not have MRP on them. Dr. K. Sivabalan, state drug controller stated that people must buy products that have MRP on them and they must not pay more than that.
