HYDERABAD: Telangana will receive over 1,600 vials of the drug Remdesivir, authorised by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for emergency medical use among Covid-19 patients, within a week’s time, according to Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Hetero Drugs. The vials meant for the State will be delivered to government and private hospitals authorised for Covid treatment in Hyderabad. The company has set the MRP for each vial at `5,400. Each vial will have 100 mg of the injectable medicine.

It may be mentioned here that the ICMR in its ‘Clinical Management Protocol: Covid- 19’ has recommended a 200 mg dose through IV on day 1, followed by 100 mg through IV daily for five days. This means that a single patient would required seven doses of the medicine. So, the 1,600 vials will be useful for around 228 patients. The pharmaceutical company said on Wednesday that it is poised to deliver 20,000 vials of Remdesivir (sold under the brand name Covifor) to hospitals located in various cities across the country, in two lots of 10,000 vials each.

“Through Covifor, we hope to reduce the treatment time of a patient in the hospital, thereby reducing the increasing pressure on the already overburdened medical infrastructure. We are working with the government to make Covifor quickly accessible,” said Hetero Healthcare Managing Director M Srinivasa Reddy.