Department of Pharmaceuticals intensified monitoring of availability, production and supply of drugs used for Covid-19 Treatment in early April, 2021 as number of cases of Covid-19 started increasing steeply.

Remdesivir is a patented drug, manufactured in India under voluntary licenses granted by Gilead Life Sciences USA, the patent holder, to 7 Indian pharmaceutical companies (Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Lab., Hetero, Jubilant Pharma, Mylan, Syngene and Zydus Cadila).

To augment the domestic production capacity, all the seven domestic licensed manufacturers of Remdesivir were asked to ramp up production quickly.

With combined efforts of the central government and the manufacturing companies, the production capacity of the licensed manufacturers has increased unprecedentedly from 38 lakh vials per month to nearly 119 lakh vials per month.

With accelerated approval of 38 additional manufacturing sites, the number of  approved manufacturing sites of Remdesivir in country has increased from 22 sites to  60 sites. 

With the help of Ministry of External Affairs, the manufacturers of Remdesivir are being facilitated for getting supplies of requisite raw materials and equipments from foreign countries.

All efforts are being made to enhance the availability of the drug both through imports as well as augmented domestic production.  

Exports of Remdesiver has been prohibited since 11^th April, 2021. Customs duty has been exempted on Remdesivir injection, Remdesivir API and Beta Cyclodextrin (SBEBCD) used in the manufacture of Remdesivir with effect from 20th  April 2021.

Looking to the suddenly increased demand in the country, in order to ensure equitable distribution of Remdesivir among different regions of the country, central government has been making allocations to States and UTs since third week of April.  

All the seven Indian manufacturers have been making supplies to States as per the allocation both against government purchase orders and also through their private distribution channels in States.

Total 54.15 lakh vials of Remdesivir have been supplied across the country by the Drug companies during 21^st April-15^th May, 2021 period.

In addition to allocation mentioned above, as on 16.05.2021, a total of 5.26 lakh vials of Remdesivir, which have been received through donation from other countries/organizations and 40000 vials which have been commercially imported, have also been allocated to States and UTs.