Gilead Sciences, Inc. has announced measures to help Indian remdesivir licensees to rapidly scale up production of the productin response to the increase in COVID-19 cases in India. The company is also donating at least 450,000 vials of the branded Veklury version “to help address the immediate needs of Indian patients.”
Chief commercial officer Johanna Mercier commented, “Our immediate focus is to help address the needs of patients in India who may benefit from remdesivir as quickly as we can by working together with the government, health authorities and our voluntary licensees.”
Though India banned the export of remdesivir and the industry ramped up the production of the emergency use approved drug for COVID-19 patients, while going through a second wave of the pandemic India saw a huge spurt in demand for remdesivir across some Indian states, with panic buying and fears of black marketing of the drug adding to the complexities.
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To expand the availability of remdesivir in India, Gilead is providing support to its licensees to expand their local manufacturing capacity. “All seven of Gilead’s licensees based in India have significantly accelerated production of remdesivir by scaling up their batch sizes, adding new manufacturing facilities and/or onboarding local contract manufacturers across the country,” stated the company.
Gilead said that it was also providing its voluntary licensing partners with technical assistance, support for the addition of new local manufacturing facilities and the donation of active pharmaceutical ingredients. “Gilead’s planned support will include the donation of API to licensees with a view to accelerate production,” said the company.
“We are committed to doing our part to help tackle this crisis,” said Mercier. “The recent surge of COVID-19 cases in India is having a devastating impact on communities and has created unprecedented pressure on health systems.”
Furthermore, “to safeguard against disruption of generic remdesivir supply to other low- and middle-income countries included as part of the voluntary licenses,” Gilead said that it was also committed to providing support to voluntary licensees based outside of India to increase their production capacity.
Gilead established its voluntary licensing program for remdesivir in May 2020, initially agreeing deals with five firms Also see "Gilead Licenses Remdesivir To Five Firms" - Generics Bulletin, 13 May, 2020. before later adding more. Also see "Dr Reddy’s Joins Remdesivir Licensees" - Generics Bulletin, 15 June, 2020. The company said that through the program, it has already enabled access to the drug for more than 2.3 million people in more than 60 low- and middle-income countries.
