Kiran Mazumdar Shaw chief of Biocon, the company which manufactures Remdesivir, said that the country may have an abundant supply of the crucial drug in the country by the second week of May and attributed the shortage to slowed down production as the first wave was seen to have been subsided.
Biocon, which manufactures two critical drugs, Remdesivir and Itolizumab, is ramping up manufacturing to meet the sudden surge in demand.
“Remdesivir is a drug that was licensed to a number of Indian companies. We’ve been one of them…The problem is that all of us slowed down production. Production was at a very, very low level because the first wave was seen to have subsided, and you know, that we are in a safe place,” Shaw said in an interview to Moneycontrol.
Remdesivir is one of the investigational drugs approved for use in treating hospitalized Covid-19 patients. With the rising cases, the demand for the drug has also shot up especially in Covid hit states including Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and others.
Biocon chief said that the priority should have been to vaccinate faster and the country is paying price because of the slow vaccination.
“I think we ought to have vaccinated much faster and then once again, I think we’ve missed an opportunity, in my view. And now we’re paying the price for that because I’ve seen one thing that anybody who has taken even one shot of vaccine, even if they get re-infected, it is not severe,” she said.
“We are of course ramping up the production. I personally believe that by the second week of May, you will have an abundant supply of Remdesivir in the country,” she added.
She said that the vaccine makers need to have a fair price so that they are not put into disadvantage.
“I think our vaccine makers need to have a fair price. I think the government procuring at $2 is one thing. But I think they should understand that the private markets must be much higher, and they will pay much higher,” Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said.
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