No shortage of medicines, medical supplies across the country: Govt

The government on Friday asserted that there is no shortage of medicines in the country and it is taking steps to ensure all medical supplies are in place to fight COVID-19 pandemic.

The government is also paying full attention to the manufacturing and distribution of essential drugs as well as hospital devices, Union minister D V Sadanada Gowda tweeted on Friday. The Government of India is making sure that there's no dearth of medical supplies across the country during the COVID-19 outbreak, the Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilizers tweeted.

The government is making sure that all the essential medical supplies are in place to fight COVID-19. As many as 62 lifeline Udan flights transported over 15.4 tons of essential medical supplies in last five days, he added. The government is also paying full attention to the manufacturing activities of essential items like pharmaceuticals and hospital devices. For this over 200 units in SEZs are operational, Gowda said.

A Central Control Room has also been set up for close monitoring of the distribution of essential medical items and to address logistic related issues, he added. Earlier on Wednesday, the government had said that there was no shortage of medicines to combat COVID-19 outbreak.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has directed manufacturers to produce and maintain sufficient stocks of essential drugs at any point of time, it had added. When asked about the availability of key drugs hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in the country, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance Secretary-General

Sudarshan Jain told PTI: "We have adequate stock of hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin. However, if the need arises, the companies are ready to ramp up the production capacity."

A spokesperson of drug firm Zydus Cadila, which manufactures hydroxychloroquine, in an email response to PTI on the availability of the drug, said: "The production of Hydroxychloroquine is being ramped up and it is available in adequate quantities. We are also ensuring that large supplies can be supplied to State and Central government."

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had earlier asked the manufacturers of FDC Lopinavir and Ritonavir (200mg+50 mg) Hydroxychloroquine 200mg & 400 mg, Azithromycin 250 mg & 500 mg and Paracetamol 500 mg to provide details about their availability.

Earlier on March 25, the NPPA in an order to the manufacturers of FDC- 'Lopinavir and Ritonavir, had directed them to maintain the stock-level of the FDC at, at least 2.20 crore tablets at any point of time and also to ensure its sufficient availability till further orders.

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