New Delhi: Amid surging COVID-19 cases in the country, the government on Tuesday waived customs duty on Remdesivir, its raw materials and other components used to make the antiviral drug.
The move would help augment domestic availability and reduce cost of the injection.
Remdesivir is being used in the treatment of coronavirus.
In a notification, the Department of Revenue said “the central government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest to do, hereby exempts the goods…when imported into India, from the whole of the duty of customs leviable”.
The items on which the duty has been waived include Remdesivir active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), injection Remdesivir, and beta Cyclodextrin used in manufacture of Remdesivir.
This import duty exemption would remain in force till October 31 this year.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted, “In line with PM @NarendraModi’s priority to ensure affordable medical care for COVID-19 patients, imports of Remdesivir API, injection and specific inputs have been made import duty free. This should increase supply and reduce cost thus providing relief to patients.”
Earlier on April 11, in view of increased demand for Remdesivir, the Centre banned export of the injection and its APIs till the situation improves.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had last week said various drug companies had cut the prices of Remdesivir injection on the intervention of the government.
Cadila Healthcare has reduced the price of its REMDAC (Remdesivir 100 mg) injection to Rs 899 from Rs 2,800.
Similarly, Syngene International has cut the price of its brand RemWin to Rs 2,450 from Rs 3,950.
Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has cut the price of REDYX, which used to cost Rs 5,400, to Rs 2,700 now. Similarly, Cipla has reduced the price of its CIPREMI brand to Rs 3,000 from Rs 4,000.
Mylan has also reduced the price of its brand from Rs 4,800 to Rs 3,400. Similarly, Jubilant Generics has cut the price of its Remdesivir brand to Rs 3,400 from Rs 4,700 earlier.
Hetero Healthcare has cut the price of its brand COVIFOR from Rs 5,400 to Rs 3,490.
Bharat Biotech Ramps Up Covaxin Production Capacity To 700 mn Doses Per Annum
To support vaccination campaigns in India and across the globe, Bharat Biotech has ramped up the manufacturing capacity of its COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin, to 700 million doses per annum, the vaccine maker said on Tuesday.
Manufacturing scale up has been carried out in a stepwise manner across multiple facilities at Hyderabad and Bangalore, the company said in a statement.
Sources said the company had a production capacity of 200 million doses of Covaxin in the beginning.
Meanwhile, the chairman and managing director of Bharat Biotech, Krishna Ella, during an event said that the company will produce 30 million doses of Covaxin next month against around 20 million doses this month and 15 million in the last month.”Last month we produced 15 million doses, this month we are reaching 20 million doses, next month we will be making around 30 million doses followed by 70 to 75 million doses,” Ella said.
He said that the company expects to reach a production capacity of up to 800 million doses per annum by July-August.”We are ramping up the production and by July-August we will be able to reach 700 to 800 million doses production capacity per annum,” Ella said. The company mentioned that inactivated vaccines, while highly safe, are extremely complex and expensive to manufacture, resulting in lower yields when compared to live virus vaccines.
“The company is able to expand Covaxin manufacturing capacity in a short timeline, mainly due to the availability of new specially designed BSL- 3 facilities, first of its kind for manufacturing in India that have been repurposed and preexisting expertise and know how to manufacture, test and release highly purified inactivated viral vaccines,” Bharat Biotech said.
Manufacturing partnerships are being explored with partners in other countries, who have prior expertise with commercial scale manufacture of inactivated viral vaccines under biosafety containment, it added.
The Hyderabad-based firm said it has partnered with Indian Immunologicals (IIL) to manufacture the drug substance for Covaxin.
The technology transfer process is well underway and IIL has the capabilities and expertise to manufacture inactivated viral vaccines at commercial scale and under biosafety containment, it added.
The company said it uses a proprietary adjuvant Algel-IMDG, that has now proven to be a safe and effective adjuvant, especially to stimulate memory T cell responses. The synthesis and manufacture of the IMDG component has been successfully indigenised and will be manufactured at commercial scale within the country.
“This is the first instance where a novel adjuvant has been commercialised in India,” Bharat Biotech said.
Covaxin has received Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for COVID-19 treatment in India and in several countries across the globe with another 60 in the process, it added.
EUA’s have now been obtained from Mexico, the Philippines, Iran, Paraguay, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Guyana, Venezuela, Botswana, Zimbabwe, among several other countries. Besides, EUA’s are in process in the US and several European countries, the company said.
Pricing for international markets and supplies to governments under EUA’s have been established between USD 15-20 per dose, it added.
Highlighting the need for vaccination, Ella said injectable vaccines only protect the lower lung not the upper lung so many people may still get the disease after vaccination but it won’t be lethal and one gets protection against the seriousness of the disease. Wearing a mask is a must even after vaccination.