The Wuhan coronavirus pandemic continues to spread its deadly wings across the world and worryingly, any potential vaccine will likely take at least another 12-18 months which will also be nothing short of a miracle. However, all is not doom and gloom, Remdesivir, which is widely regarded as a game changer drug which helps patients of the virus recover at a faster pace, is now all set to be manufactured in India and made available at cheaper rates.
Gilead, the patent holder of Remdesivir, has granted permission to Cipla, Hetero Labs, Jubilant Lifesciences & Mylan to produce the game changer drug. The American drug-maker has signed voluntarily licensing and non-exclusive agreements with the three Indian pharmaceutical companies along with two other countries and the five companies will produce the drug which will be subsequently distributed in 127 countries.
The agreement also states that the companies will be allowed to set their own prices and will be royalty free and hence, it is expected that the generic drug will be sold at cheap rates.
In a Press Statement, Gilead said, “The licenses are royalty-free until the World Health Organization declares the end of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern regarding COVID-19, or until a pharmaceutical product other than remdesivir or a vaccine is approved to treat or prevent COVID-19, whichever is earlier.” It further added that, “Under the licensing agreements, the companies have a right to receive a technology transfer of the Gilead manufacturing process for remdesivir to enable them to scale up production more quickly.”
The drug has been received well by countries across the globe with Dr. Anthony Fauci who is leading the USA’s charge against the virus and is currently advising US President Donald Trump claimed that, “remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery”.
While the drug is undergoing further clinical trials, the initial trials have been encouraging as in a placebo group it was found that on an average, patients of the virus were discharged in 11 days as compared to 15 days for other placebo groups who didn’t take the drug.
It is important to note that India has already been mass producing ‘wonder drug’ HCQ and exporting them to different countries. Presently India produces 20 crore tablets of HCQ per month to meet domestic and global demand, and production capacity could be ramped up if needed. As per a report by Business Today, the pharmaceutical companies shall increase the production capacity to 5-6 times in the coming months to make hundreds of crores of tablets per month. Of these, 10 crore tablets would be kept for Indian use while the rest would be exported to the United States and other neighbouring countries.
The recent developments are encouraging and Remdesivir can play a big role in helping the world against the virus and ease the strain on the healthcare sector.