NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India banned exports of antiviral drug Remdesivir and its active pharmaceutical ingredients on Sunday as demand surged due to a record surge in COVID-19 infections, leading to crippling shortages in many parts.
The number of new COVID-19 cases rose to 152,879 on Sunday, the sixth record increase in seven days, an overwhelming number of hospitals in some regions. Known as the world’s pharmacy, India has already halted major exports of coronavirus vaccines.
In addition to the Remdesivir ban, “until the situation improves,” the health ministry said in a statement that manufacturers had been asked to step up supplies.
Seven Indian companies have licensed the Gilead Sciences drug, with an installed capacity of approximately 3.9 million units per month, for local use and export to more than 100 countries.
The companies are: Cipla Ltd, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, Hetero Labs Ltd, Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd, Biocon Ltd’s Syngene, Zydus Cadila Healthcare Ltd and Mylan’s Indian unit.
The World Health Organization issued a conditional recommendation in November against the use of Remdesivir in hospitalized patients regardless of the severity of the disease, saying there was no evidence that the drug improved survival and other outcomes in these patients.
However, many countries, including India, have continued to use it.
According to a Reuters report, India is the world leader in the daily average number of new infections reported in more than two weeks, accounting for one in six infections reported worldwide every day.
The number of deaths has also skyrocketed, with the Department of Health reporting 839 fatalities on Sunday – the highest number in more than five months – bringing the total to 169,275.
The number in India with more than 13.35 million cases is the third highest worldwide, after only the United States and Brazil.
BLACK MARKETING
The Indian drug regulator and some state governments have raised concerns in recent days about the hoarding and black marketing of Remdesivir, which in some cases is sold at more than 10 times the maximum retail price.
Social media posts on Sunday showed large lines of people in the western state of Gujarat waiting to buy Remdesivir injections for COVID-19 patients.
“Every day the central government gives 50,000 Remdesivir injections, but they are all consumed,” Rajesh Tope, health minister of the hardest hit Indian state of Maharashtra, told reporters this week. “Pharmacists and traders may be doing black marketing and that needs to be monitored.”
The Federal Ministry of Health wrote to Maharashtra, where the financial capital Mumbai is located, asking local authorities to improve COVID-19 testing and deploy more manpower.
“Scheduling health workers and hiring contract health workers must be accelerated,” said the letter from India’s top health bureaucrat, pointing to an acute shortage of health workers in seven districts of Maharashtra.
Authorities have mainly attributed the resurgence of the virus to the buzz and reluctance to wear masks, even though electoral rallies and religious gatherings have continued in recent weeks.
Thousands of people thronged the banks of the sacred Ganges River in the city of Haridwar on Sunday for prayers during the Kumbh Mela – where up to five million are expected on certain days.
The authorities have made it mandatory for all people entering the area to take COVID-19 tests. But many devotees gathered by the river without masks on Sundays, in tightly packed crowds.
Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das in New Delhi, edited by William Maclean