India finds itself in the same position as last year with reports of shortage of the anti-viral Remdesivir doing the rounds on social media. As the number of cases increase, so does hospitalisation and the demand for this injection.
This unmet demand with skewed supply has led to the shortage of this antiviral in hospitals as well as with distributors. The seven manufacturers who are producing this medicine are also running out of stock and the Department of Pharmaceuticals has decided to help them increase production after it banned the export of the drug on April 11. Currently, they have a capacity of 38.8 lakh doses per month and will require about a month's time to increase it.
This anti-viral produced by Gilead Lifesciences based in the United States of America was first manufactured to fight Ebola but was not found to be effective against the disease. Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use against SARS-CoV-2, the Remdesivir arm of the SOLIDARITY trial by the World Health Organisation found that the drug has little or no effect on overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay in hospitalized patients.
Remdesivir is a part of India's COVID-19 treatment protocol but only as an investigational therapy. On April 13, in the weekly COVID-19 press conference, Dr. V K Paul, member NITI Aayog urged physicians to not prescribe the drug indiscriminately which was then leading to shortage. The drug was only to be given to hospitals for using for patients with severe symptoms.
Despite the government's repeated insistence, there have been repeated requests on all social media platforms for Remdesivir along with Tocilizumab as stocks across cities run out.
The government is also planning to cap the costs for the anti-viral injection that is sold in a 100ml vial. Cipla, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Hetero Labs, Jubilant Lifesciences, Mylan, Syngene, a Biocon company and Zydus Cadila Healthcare are the ones manufacturing the vaccine in the country and when it was approved and launched in the country, it was sold at over ₹4,000.
During the shortage, last year as well as this year, it is being sold at four times the market price. The government has now requested the manufacturers to reduce the cost of the medicine. Zydus is selling its product at ₹829. All the other manufacturers have agreed to cap their prices below ₹3,500.
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Mansukh Mandaviya has tweeted the reduced prices.
To ensure that procuring the medicine does not get more chaotic than it already is, the pharmaceuticals have released helpline numbers along with their distribution lists. Family members of patients can provide the hospital and doctor's prescription, along with the patient and their Aadhaar card numbers to avail of the stocks as well normally get details about the drug.
Helpline Numbers For Remdesivir
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, the apex body to ensure that there is no black marketing or predatory pricing, has launched a helpline for noting down grievances about non-availability of Remdesivir injection. They can be contacted on 1800 111 255
Dr. Reddy's has launched a website which can be accessed at readytofightcovid.in. However, the website currently states that they are out of stock. They also have a 24-hour helpline- 1800-266-7080/ 18004250014
Cipla has released a document with all its distributors across the country while they can also be reached out on info.availability@cipla.com. Their helpline number is 8657311088.
Further are the posters released by Hetero and Mylan.
In Mumbai, drug inspectors have been allocated to work over the issues in each ward. The helpline number for the Food and Drug Administration department is 1800222365.
There are also several messages with numbers of distributors that are being shared on WhatsApp. Most of these distributors are same as in the list shared by Cipla.
BOOM's ground report from Mumbai shows how kin of patients have been left to their own means as the remdesivir stocks in hospitals are also depleting.