Gilead boosts remdesivir availability in India, to donate 4.5 lakh vials to govt

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The US drug firm Gilead Sciences announced steps to expand the availability of antiviral drug remdesivir in India. The firm said that it will also be donating a minimum of 4.5 lakh vials of ‘Veklury’ (brand name for remdesivir) to the Indian government in the wake of rising cases in the country.

The statement issued by Gilead Sciences Inc said, “In response to the rapid increase in covid-19 cases in India, the company is providing its voluntary licensing partners with technical assistance, support for the addition of new local manufacturing facilities and the donation of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to rapidly scale up production of remdesivir.”

In addition to providing support to its licensees and expanding their local manufacturing capacity, Gilead will also donate at least 4,50,000 vials of Veklury (remdesivir) to help address the immediate needs of Indian patients, it added.

In India, remdesivir is approved for restricted emergency use for the treatment of adults and children hospitalized with severe symptoms of covid-19.

The Chief Commercial Officer of Gilead Sciences, Johanna Mercier, said that the recent surge of covid-19 cases in India is having a devastating impact on communities and has created unprecedented pressure on health systems.

The seven licensees of Gilead, based in India (Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Hetero Labs, Jubilant Lifesciences, Mylan, Syngene, and Zydus Cadila Healthcare) have significantly ramped up the production of remdesivir. They have scaled up their batch sizes and added new manufacturing facilities. They have also started onboarding local contract manufacturers across the country to speed fast the production.

Gilead’s voluntary licensing program for remdesivir was established in May 2020. The program has already enabled access to the drug for more than 2.3 million people in more than 60 low- and middle-income countries.