Hetero Healthcare Ltd is supplying 60,000 vials of Covifor, generic version of Remdesivir injection in the country from July 13 to 20, the company website said. Covifor is the first generic brand of Remdesivir, which is meant for the treatment of COVID-19 patients that are adults and children, hospitalized with severe symptoms of the disease.
Hetero had announced that it had received the manufacturing and marketing approval for the investigational antiviral medicine ‘Remdesivir’ from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for the treatment of Covid-19. Hetero’s generic version of Remdesivir will be marketed under the brand name Covifor in India.
Covifor has been launched under a licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc.
The drug is available in 100 mg vial (Injectable). It needs to be administered intravenously in a hospital, critical care setting, under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner.
Out of 60,000 vials, Maharashtra, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country will get 12,500 followed by Delhi and Telangana with 10,000 and 9,000 respectively.
According to the website, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka will get 7500, 6000, 2000 and 3000 respectively while the rest of the country will get 10,000 injections.
The company has supplied the drug to as many as 166 hospitals in Maharashtra and 53 in the national capital.
When it comes to Telangana, Hetero supplied 14,502 vials, the information available at 11 a.m. on the site on Wednesday said.
Remdesivir is the only drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) treatment of adult and pediatric patients hospitalized with suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection.
Meanwhile, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, which also has a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc to register, manufacture and sell the investigational drug, Remdesivir in 127 countries including India is yet to get a nod from the DCGI to start making the drug in the country, sources said.
Mean-while, US biotech firm Moderna said on Tuesday it would enter the final stage of human trials for its Covid-19 vaccine on July 27, after promising early results were published in an influential journal.
The announcement came as the results from an earlier trial intended to prove the vaccine was safe and triggered antibody production was published.
The first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people’s immune systems just the way scientists had hoped, researchers reported Tuesday — as the shots are poised to begin key final testing.
