The second wave of the Coronavirus is wreaking havoc in India.The COVID cases in the country rapidly are rising exponentially. In this given situation, the life-saving drug Remdesivir is suddenly making headlines due to its acute shortage across the nation. The paucity of this drug has been found in many states. This is causing difficulties in the treatment of serious corona patients. The situation regarding this medicine in India is that the people who do not even need Remdesivir are also procuring this drug anyhow. Seeing the importance of this drug, let us discuss about this.
What is Remdesivir?
Remdesivir is an antiviral drug, made by the US pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. The company developed Remedesivir as an Ebola drug. It was made about a decade ago to treat hepatitis C and respiratory viruses (RSV). And now in this corona pandemic, Remedesivir injection is being seen as a life-saving drug. People are buying Remedesivir injection even at an expensive price. Currently, it is being used in the treatment of severe corona patients. However, no one has recognized its effective functioning in the treatment of corona.
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In November, the WHO also said that Remedesivir is not an accurate treatment of Coronavirus. In India, this drug has been produced by many companies like Cipla, Zydus Cadila, Hetero, Mylan, Jubilant Life Sciences, Dr. Reddy’s and Sun Pharma.
Why the country is facing its shortage?
The second wave of corona in the country has seen a huge increase in the number of patients. During this time the demand for Remdesivir has increased manifolds. At the end of last year, the production of the Remdesivir drug was reduced after the reduction in the daily surge of cases. In the last 6 months, India had exported more than one million Remdesivir injections to other countries.
One of the reasons for the shortage of this drug is the problem of hoarding and black marketing of Remdesivir injections. At the moment, demand is being sought from the Centre by different state governments. Politics is also being played around the drug in the country. Along with this, black marketing and theft incidents of Remdesivir injection are also emerging out from different states of the country, which has further aggravated this problem.
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The government reduced the price
Amid the rising cases of Corona, the Union Government has slashed down the price of Remdesivir, the main drug used in the treatment of critical patients. The central government has reduced the price of Remdesivir by about fifty percent. Its price has been reduced by two thousand rupees. The price of this injection is Rs 2,450. Now, it is expected to be available at Rs 1225 after the deduction.