On Sunday, the export of Remdesivir & Remdesivir active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) was banned by the centre in view of the surge of the Covid19 cases and increased demand for vaccines.
A total of 7 Indian companies are producing Remdesivir under voluntary licensing with Gilead Sciences of the US. The companies have an installed capacity of around 348.8 lakh units per month. GOI has instructed the manufacturers of the drug to highlight their stockists and distributors on their websites to ensure that the people can get the drug. Demand of vaccines has soared when the spread of the Covid19 has been exacerbated in India after the arrival of the new mutants of the virus.
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As the country is facing the second wave of the virus, ten states are facing a shortage of vaccine against the coronavirus, which includes Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Jharkhand. Between Friday night and Saturday night, 10,732 new cases were registered in Delhi. In this situation, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has stated that lockdown is not a way to tackle the pandemic. He further urged that people should go outside only when it is extremely necessary, given the fast spread of the virus in the second wave. On Sunday, India registered 1,52,879 new cases with Covid19.
In the second wave, the younger and economically active population has been found to be infected in a larger proportion, which would cause a great problem for the abysmal state of the nearly decimated economy. Growing demand for vaccines comes in a situation that is excruciating for the recovery of the infected population and should be embarrassing for the government. GOI in every possible chance has tried to downplay the problem of the second wave and highlight its negligible success in containing it.
Also Read: Issues faced by India in dealing with Covid 19 resurge- Is it too late to contain the Second Wave
While Indian government compares its work with the likes of the US & UK, the stark differences with those countries, in terms of work done to save the population from Covid19, fall in its blind spot. GOI somehow always forgets that India has exported 6.5 crore vaccines and had administered 9 crore vaccine doses within the country’s territory. So, numerically, India has vaccinated 5.5% of the total population. While countries like the USA and UK have prioritized their people over exports, unlike India. USA & UK have vaccinated 30% and 47% of their population, respectively. Numbers speak for themselves.
Remdesivir has been listed as an investigational therapy by the National Clinical Management Protocol for Covid19. It was the first drug that was approved by the FDA for the treatment of the SARS-Cov-2. It was developed over a decade ago to treat a cold-like virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) & Hepatitis C. Though Remdesivir was not an effective treatment for either of the diseases, it had shown promise against other viruses.
It was tested in clinical trials during the Ebola outbreak. Studies carried out in cells and animals have suggested that the drug was effective against viruses in the coronavirus family, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
