After the initial shortage, the production of Remdesivir has been ramped up ten times from 33,000 vials per day to 3,50,000 vials per day.
Taking to Twitter Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya today said that the number of plants producing Remdesivir has also increased from just 20 to 60 within a month.
“I am delighted and satisfied to inform you all that the Production of Remdesivir is ramped up ten times from just ~33,000 vials/day on 11th April 2021 to ~3,50,000 vials/day today under the astute leadership of Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi Ji,” Mansukh Mandaviya said in a tweet.
GoI to discontinue central allocation of Remdesivir to States, UTs
Following this development, the Centre decided to discontinue the central allocation of Remdesivir to states and UTs.
“We have also increased the number of plants producing Remdesivir from just 20 to 60 plants within a month. Now the country has enough #Remdesivir as the supply is much more than the demand. So we have decided to discontinue the Central Allocation of Remdesivir to states,” ANI quoted him as saying.
The minister said The MoS also announced that the GoI has decided to procure 50 lakh vials of Remdesivir to maintain it as a strategic stock.
Seven Indian manufacturers licensed to produce Remdesivir
Over the last 29 days, India also received 12 lakh Favipiravir tablets and 6.9 lakh Remdesivir vials from various countries as part of international cooperation of COVID-19 relief medical supplies, and they were delivered to states and Union Territories (UTs).
After the shortage of Remdesivir, the government ramped up its production with seven domestic licensed manufacturers of Remdesivir scaling up production from 38 lakh vials per month to nearly 119 lakh vials per month.
Gilead Sciences, Inc, an American biopharmaceutical company, holds a patent of Remdesivir and has granted voluntary licenses to Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Hetero, Jubilant Pharma, Mylan, Syngene, and Zydus Cadila.
The shortage of Remdesivir during the second wave of COVID-19 led to black marketing of the injection.
To stop the black marketing, Uttar Pradesh announced that anyone indulging in black-marketing of Remdesivir injections will be booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath saying that properties of those hoarding or black-marketing life-saving medicines will be seized.
