The 11 approved companies, including Hetero Labs Ltd, have committed to at least meet minimum proposed annual production capacities.
Early last year, during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance said it did not see any reported shortage of APIs, finished product formulations and channel availability. The IPA insisted that its member companies were evaluating the stock position regularly.
However, as the second wave of COVID-19 hit India, the country reported 314,644 new cases in the last 24 hours as on 22 April, which accounts for the world’s highest daily cases so far.
Though the Indian government prohibited the export of remdesivir injection and APIs and gave the approval to ramp up remdesivir production, in the last few weeks, the country saw a huge unmet demand for remdesivir.
Furthermore, although domestic companies such as Glenmark, Sun Pharma, Indoco and Dr Reddy’s produced favipiravir in various strengths, many states, including Delhi, saw a shortage of favipiravir.