Indian Pharma gambles on a cure for Covid-19

Indian drug makers are throwing potential Covid-19 cures against the wall in the hopes that one sticks. At stake are their bottom lines; the reward, however, could be a global market

US pharma major Gilead licensed three Indian drug makers—Cipla, Hetero Labs, and Jubilant—to produce its purported Covid-19 cure, remdesivir

The Indian government and Indian Pharma, though, are sceptical of its efficacy and prefer not to wait for it to reach the market

Instead, they are banking on alternatives like favipiravir and tocilizumab, which are both off-patent and can be made available a lot sooner

If any of these drugs come up trumps, Indian pharma companies will be at the forefront of supplying it globally

In the first week of May, India’s health ministry convened a video call with the country’s drug makers. As cases of the novel coronavirus continued to mount, the government wanted to know wanted to know The Print Govt asks pharma firms when remdesivir, the big hope against Covid, can be made in India Read more how they planned to bring remdesivir to India.

An antiviral drug manufactured by pharma major Gilead Sciences, the US drug regulator had recently authorised the emergency use of remdesivir for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

AUTHOR

Ruhi Kandhari

Ruhi writes on the impact of healthcare policies, trends in the healthcare sector and developments on the implementation of Electronic Health Records in India. She has an M. Sc. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics.

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