Pharma firms ready to up anti-malarial drug production

Domestic pharmaceutical companies are ready to increase the manufacture of the anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine tablets to 250 million tablets in the next two weeks. Currently, the country has a stock of 1.5 million tablets.

However, the small scale manufacturers aren't manufacturing the drug in the country despite having the licence as the government's cap on prices is pushing them into losses.

According to the officials from the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (IPA). the industry has already kept ready 1.5 million tablets keeping the monsoon in the picture and the healthcare sector was preparing to counter the resultant malarial threat. However, after the outbreak of Covid-19, the government has placed orders for 250 million tablets, which are likely to be manufactured within the next two weeks.

"Across the country, enough stock is available. But the main problem is the price control right now. So, many small manufacturers aren't manufacturing it," J Jayaseelan, VP, Industrial Pharmacy Division at IPA told DH.

The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) -- the raw material for making the tablets costs Rs 30,000 per kilogram. "If we convert it into 200 mg tablets, the raw material cost alone works out at Rs 7 per tablet. The government has, however, capped the price of the tablet at Rs 5.80 per tablet, a loss of 17% if we take into account only raw material cost," he said.

Pharma manufacturers are also ruing the export ban on Hydroxychloroquine by the government, which they say would have helped them recover the costs, despite caps on pricing.

However, according to the IPA, many large firms like IPCA Labs, Zydus Cadila, Cipla, Sun Pharma, and Torrent -- that manufacture the API themselves -- will be ramping up the production in the coming days. Another pharma company, which can also start producing the drug is Lupin, as it was doing so till three years ago.

Drug can only stop occurrence

The drug can, however, only reduce the occurrence of the novel coronavirus, and can't treat it. "It's not a drug for treating coronavirus. it's a prophylactic drug. It can just prevent its occurrence," a senior drug procurement official told DH. The drug also can't be prescribed to patients with heart ailments like cardiac dysrhythmias, as it precipitates the condition leading to cardiac arrest.

The better medicine, according to a cross-section of doctors, is an anti-retroviral drug used for the treatment of HIV AIDS. "The anti-retroviral stops the virus from growing and then the human body fights the existing virus. Globally, this prescription has worked," a senior doctor said.