Coronavirus: Four Indian companies sign pacts to manufacture Remdivisir

Four Indian and one Pakistani drug-making companies have signed agreements with pharmaceutical major Gilead for manufacturing its experimental medicine Remdesivir that has shown promise against COVID-19 in a few trials.

The multinational company has signed non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements with Cipla, Hetero Labs, Jubilant Life Sciences, Mylan and Ferozsons Laboratories to manufacture Remdesivir for distribution in 127 countries.

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The destination countries consisted of nearly all low-income and lower-middle-income countries, as well as several upper-middle and high-income countries that faced significant obstacles to healthcare access, the company said in a statement.

The anti-viral drug – originally developed for Ebola patients - is one of the several experimental medicines that are being tried against the pandemic virus. Some of the trials have yielded success.

For instance in one of the early trials when people hospitalised with severe COVID-19 infection were treated with this medicine, clinical improvement was observed in 68% of patients (36 of 53 individuals). But another randomised trial suggests the antiviral drug is not associated with significant clinical benefits and more research is needed.

Trial with Remdisivir is one of the arms of the World Health Organisation’s Solidarity trial in which India is participating.

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Under the licensing agreements, Gilead will transfer the technology to the companies to enable them to scale up production more quickly. The licensees can set their own prices for the generic product they produce.

The licenses are royalty-free until the World Health Organization declares the end of the COVID-19 pandemic or until a pharmaceutical product other than Remdesivir or a vaccine is approved to treat or prevent the COVID-19, the company said in a statement.