Centre prohibits export of Remdesivir till COVID-19 situation in India improves

The Centre on Sunday prohibited exports of injection Remdesivir and Remdesivir Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients API till the Covid19 situation in the country improvesRemdesivir is considered a key antiviral drug in the fight against COVID19In addition the government has taken three steps to ensure easy access of hospitals and patients to RemdesivirAll domestic manufactures of Remdesivir have been advised to display on their website details of their stockistsdistributors to facilitate access to the drug The drug inspectors and other officers have been directed to verify stocks and check their malpractices and also take other effective actions to curb hoarding and black marketingThe State Health Secretaries will review this with the Drug Inspectors of the respective StatesUTsIn a statement the Union government said India is witnessing a recent surge in COVID cases As of April 11 there are 1108 lakh active COVID cases and they are steadily increasing This has led to a sudden spike in demand for Injection Remdesivir used in the treatment of COVID patients There is a potential of a further increase in this demand in the coming daysA total of seven Indian companies are producing Injection Remdesivir under a voluntary licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences in the United States of America They have an installed capacity of about 3880 lakh units per month it saidIn light of the above Government of India has prohibited the exports of Injection Remdesivir and Remdesivir Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients API till the situation improves the statement saidThe Union Government has also advised the States that the extant National Clinical Management Protocol for COVID19 which is based on evidence has been developed after many interactions by the Committee of Experts and is the guiding document for treatment of Covid19 patientsIn the Protocol Remdesivir is listed as an Investigational Therapy an example was informed and shared decision making is essential besides taking note of contraindications mentioned in the detailed guidelines they addedStates and UTs have been advised that these steps should again be communicated to all hospitals both in the public and private sector and compliance monitoredThe Department of Pharmaceuticals has been in contact with the domestic manufacturers to ramp up the production of Remdesivir stated the press releaseThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever