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Updated April 29th, 2021 at 19:08 IST

COVID-19: Gilead to give licensees to open more Remdesivir producing facilities in India

Gilead Sciences Inc company, the developer of drug Remdesivir will provide all its licensing partners in India with technical support for more facilities.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
COVID-19
Image credits: Pixabay/AP | Image:self
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United States-based Gilead Sciences Inc company, the developer of the antiviral drug Remdesivir will provide all its licensing partners in India with the technical support for the addition of new manufacturing facilities. As India tackles the crippling second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with a drastic surge of patients, Remdesivir is also being used to treat the novel coronavirus infections. As the shortage of antiviral drug is being flagged by several states, Gilead spokesperson told Sputnik that it would provide the licensees but it would not send any more specialists to the country.

Earlier, on Monday, Gilead announced several steps in order to boost the availability of the drug in India and pledged to donate at least 450,000 vials of Veklury, which is a brand name of Remdesivir. Further, the US-based company spokesperson added that all seven local manufacturers of Remdesivir have also majorly increased their production capacity in the wake of the COVID-19 situation in India.

"Gilead will provide all of its voluntary licensing partners with technical assistance, support for the addition of new local manufacturing facilities and the donation of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) as they rapidly scale up production of Remdesivir to address the needs of patients in India and other low- and middle-income countries included as part of the voluntary license program," the company said as per ANI.

Gilead will not send more specialists

As per the report, when asked if Gilead would send in more specialists to India, the spokesperson explained that since the company has already made the technology transfer at the time when they signed the agreements, there is no need to send more specialists. The development regarding Gilead was reported as India logs record-breaking COVID-19 cases for several days in a row. Hospitals have been overwhelmed with the sudden influx of patients and it is clubbed with the shortage of liquid oxygen, stocks of Remdesivir running out. Countries including the United States, France, Germany, Italy among several others have also united to help India in its fight against the pandemic. 

Image credits: Pixabay/AP

 

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Published April 29th, 2021 at 19:08 IST

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