New Delhi, April 14, 2021: The issue of availability of Remdesivir was reviewed by Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State, For Ports, Shipping and Waterways (Independent Charge) and Chemicals& Fertilizers, Government of India in meetings with the all-existing manufacturers of the Remdesivir drug and other stakeholders on 12th and 13th April 2021, where decisions have been taken to increase production/supply and reduce prices of Remdesivir.
The current total installed capacity of the seven manufacturers of Remdesivir is 38.80 lakh vials per month. Fast-track approval has been given for seven additional sites having the production capacity of 10 Lakh vials /month to six manufacturers. Another 30 lakh vials/month production is lined up. This would ramp up the production capacity for manufacturing to around 78 lakh vials/month.
As an additional measure, Remdesivir, API and formulation were placed under Export ban on 11.04.2021by DGFT to increase the supply of Remdesivir in the Domestic Market. On Government intervention, Remdesivir supplies of approximately 4 lakh vials meant for Export is being diverted by manufacturers to fulfil domestic requirement. EOU/SEZ units are also being enabled to supply to the domestic market.
Manufacturers of Remdesivir have volunteered to reduce the price to less than Rs 3500 by the end of this week, to support the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to Fight against COVID.
The manufactures have been directed to give priority to fulfil hospital/institutional level supplies against COVID.
Enforcement Authorities of States and Central Govt. have been directed by DCGI to take immediate action on incidence of black-marketing, hoarding and overcharging of Remdesivir.
National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) is continuously monitoring the availability of Remdesivir.
Meanwhile, total number of COVID 19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 11 Cr todayon the fourth day of the Tika Utsav.
Cumulatively, 11,11,79,578vaccine doses have been administered through 16,53,488 sessions, as per the provisional report till 7 am today.
The cumulative vaccination beneficiaries include 90,48,686HCWs who have taken the 1st dose and 55,81,072HCWs who have taken the 2nd dose, 1,01,36,430FLWs (1stdose), 50,10,773FLWs (2nddose), 4,24,66,3541st dose beneficiaries and 24,67,4842nd dose beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 3,56,50,444(1st dose) and 8,18,335(2nd dose) beneficiaries aged 45 to 60 years.
As on Day-88 of the vaccination drive (13th April, 2021), 26,46,528vaccine doses were given. Out of which, 22,58,910 beneficiaries were vaccinated across 44,643 sessions for 1st dose and 3,87,618 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of vaccine.
In the country’s bid to flush out COVID cases, another milestone has been reached today. The country has crossed 26 crore tests. The exact figure stands at 26,06,18,866. The tests conducted in the last 24 hours stand at 14,11,758. The testing capacity has been ramped up to 15 lakh tests per day.
India’s daily new cases continue to rise. 1,84,372new cases were registered in the last 24 hours.
Ten States including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi,Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Rajasthan have shown a rise in the COVID daily new cases. 82.04% of the new cases are reported from these 10 states.
Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 60,212. It is followed by Uttar Pradesh with 17,963 while Chhattisgarh reported 15,121 new cases.
Visit of Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian of France to India
