The Union Government has decided to increase production and supply of Remdesivir, a key drug for Covid-19 patients and also to reduce prices.
The current total installed capacity of the seven manufacturers of Remdesivir is 38.80 lakh vials per month. Fast-track approval has been given for seven additional sites having the production capacity of 10 Lakh vials /month to six manufacturers. Another 30 lakh vials/month production is lined up. This would ramp up the production capacity for manufacturing to around 78 lakh vials/month.
As an additional measure, Remdesivir, API and formulation were banned for exports on April 11 to increase the supply in the domestic market.
On the Government intervention, Remdesivir supplies of approximately 4 lakh vials meant for Export is being diverted by manufacturers to fulfil domestic requirement.
Manufacturers of Remdesivir have also volunteered to reduce the price to less than Rs 3,500 by the end of this week.
The manufactures of Remdesivir have been directed to give priority to fulfil hospital/institutional level supplies.
India registered 1,84,372 new Covid-19 cases on April 13.
Ten States including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan have shown a rise in the Covid-19 daily new cases. About 82% of the new cases are reported from these 10 states.
