Pankaj Patel, Chairman of Zydus Cadila, said the company expects to launch antiviral drug Remdesivir early next month and has the potential to produce as high as 3-4 lakh doses a month.
Zydus has a voluntary license from Gilead Sciences to manufacture and distribute the drug in 127 countries including India.
The company has sought approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the application is currently under review, Patel told in an interview to Moneycontrol.
Cipla, Hetero and Mylan have till now launched the generic versions of Remdesivir in India. Both Cipla and Hetero can produce up to 2 lakh doses a month; the production capacity of Mylan is not known. Jubilant Life Sciences, Dr Reddy's, Syngene are other companies that have licenses from Gilead to manufacture and distribute Remdesivir generic versions but are yet to get approval from DCGI.
Remdesivir is prescribed for hospitalised patients who are on oxygen. The drug has to take for five days, 200 mg IV (intravenous) on day 1 followed by 100 mg IV daily for four days.
With a rising number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, the demand for Remdesivir is also soaring, but the current capacity is still way short than the demand. Prices of the drug in the black market have soared many times its MRP.
According to John Hopkins University COVID-19 tracker, COVID-19 cases in India crossed 1 million-mark with 25,602 deaths. There are around 3.5 lakh active cases, which are increasing by around 30,000 per day. About 20 percent of all COVID-19 cases would require hospitalisation, and fit case for the administration of Remdesivir.
On the possibility of working on a different formulation of Remdesivir like inhalation route, Patel said they have the capability of developing an inhalation formulation, but not working on any formulation other than the intravenous (IV) route.
"We are working to make Remdesivir available," Patel said.
Gilead, the innovator of Remdesivir is testing the inhaled version of Remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients in the outpatient setting, and at a more early stage.
SARS-CoV-2 infects the upper respiratory tract in the early stages of the disease; an inhaled version is considered to be more convenient and effective.
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