Hetero set to deliver 20,000 vials of generic Remdesivir

Following the approval of Covfir, the generic version of Remdesivir, by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Hetero Healthcare Limited is set to deliver the first set of 20,000 vials in two equal lots of 10,000 each. One set would be immediately supplied to Hyderabad, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra, a press release from the city-based drug-maker said. The other lot would be supplied to Kolkata, Indore, Bhopal, Lucknow, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Vijayawada, Cochin, Trivandrum and Goa within a week to meet the emergency requirements, the release said.

Managing director of Hetero Healthcare M Srinivasa Reddy said the launch of Covifor in the country is a milestone in addressing public health emergencies.

Through Covifor, we hope to reduce the treatment time of a patient in a hospital thereby reducing the increasing pressure on the medical infrastructure overburdened ue to accelerating COVID-19 infection rates," he said.

"We are closely working with the government and the medical community to make Covifor quickly accessible to both public and private healthcare settings across the country, Reddy said.

Covifor is a generic brand of Remdesivir which is used for the treatment of COVID-19 in adults and children hospitalised with strong symptoms of the disease.

The Health Ministry had, on June 13, recommended the use of anti-viral drugRemdesivirin moderate stage of COVID-19.

Dr Reddys Laboratories and Hetero are among others which have separately entered into non-exclusive licensing agreements with the original drug-maker Gilead Sciences Inc to register, make and sell the investigational drug Remdesivir in India and other countries.

Remdesivir would be made in the company's formulation facility in Hyderabad, which has been approved by global regulatory authorities such as US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) and EU, among others, Hetero had earlier said.