NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India on Sunday banned the export of Remdesivir antiviral drugs and their active pharmaceutical ingredients as demand skyrocketed due to a historic rise in COVID-19 infections, which cause a paralyzing shortage in many parts.
Authorities have blamed the fierce resurgence of the virus mainly for overcrowding and reluctance to wear masks.
However, religious meetings have continued and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Interior Minister Amit Shah have addressed election campaigns attended by tens of thousands of people, many without masks and hardly any. monitoring of social distancing.
As new COVID-19 cases rose to 152,879 on Sunday, the sixth record increase in seven days, relatives of harassed patients lined up for miles to buy Remdesivir outside a large hospital in the western state of Gujarat. , said witnesses.
India, known as the world’s pharmacy, has already curbed major exports of coronavirus vaccines, although its supply has also declined in some states in the country.
In addition to the ban on Remdesivir “until the situation improves,” the health ministry said manufacturers had been asked to increase supplies.
Seven companies based in India have licensed Gilead Sciences medicine, with an installed capacity of about 3.9 million units per month, for local use and exports to more than 100 countries.
The companies are: Cipla, Reddy’s Laboratories, Hetero Labs, Jubilant Life Sciences, Biocon’s Syngene, Zydus Cadila Healthcare and Mylan’s Indian unit.
The World Health Organization issued a conditional recommendation in November against the use of Remdesivir in hospitalized patients, saying there was no evidence that the drug improved survival and other outcomes.
But many countries, including India, have continued to use it.
India leads the world in the average daily number of new infections reported in more than two weeks, accounting for one in six infections reported worldwide each day.
Deaths have also risen, and the health ministry reported 839 fatalities on Sunday, the highest in more than five months, and reached 169,275.
The index of more than 13.35 million cases in India is the third highest in the world, behind the United States and Brazil. New infections in India have shot up almost 18 times since it started going down for several months in early February.
BLACK MARKETING
Some state governments have expressed concern in recent days about the hoarding and blackmail of Remdesivir, which in some cases sells for more than ten times the maximum retail price.
“It is possible for pharmacists and traders to do black marketing and this needs to be checked,” Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra’s most affected state health minister, told reporters this week.
Maharashtra and many other states have also demanded more doses of vaccine. India has administered more than 100 million doses since mid-January, most after the United States and China, but far below many countries per capita.
The federal health ministry has called on Maharashtra, the headquarters of India’s financial capital, Bombay, to improve COVID-19 testing and deploy more manpower.
“There is a need to expedite the assistance of health workers, the hiring of contract workers,” said India’s health secretary, who pointed to a severe shortage of health workers in seven districts of Maharashtra.
Thousands of people gathered on the banks of the Ganges River in the city of Haridwar on Sunday to pray during the Kumbh Mela, where up to five million are expected on certain days.
Authorities have forced all people entering the area to take COVID-19 tests. But many devotees on Sunday gathered by the river without masks, in dense crowds.
Reports of Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Additional reports from Sumit Khanna; Edited by William Maclean