Zydus Cadila launches India’s cheapest remdesivir version Remdac

The company said the drug will be made available across India through the group’s strong distribution chain reaching out to government and private hospitals treating Covid-19 patients. (Representative image)

Zydus Cadila launches the generic version of Remdesivir, under the brand name Remdac, for treating patients suffering from severe symptoms of Covid-19. Priced at Rs 2,800 per 100 mg vial, Remdac is the most economical Remdesivir brand as on date. Zydus is the fifth company to launch generic version of Remdesivir and other pharma companies who have launched include Hetero’s Covifor at Rs 5,400 for 100 mg vial, Mylan’s Desrem is at Rs 4,800 and Cipla’s Cipremi is priced at Rs 4,000 and Jubilant Life Sciences’ Jubi-R at Rs 4,700 per vial.

The company said the drug will be made available across India through the group’s strong distribution chain reaching out to government and private hospitals treating Covid-19 patients.

“Remdac is the most affordable drug as we would like to enable patients to have access to this critical drug in the treatment of Covid-19,” said Sharvil Patel, MD, Cadila Healthcare MD, said.

In June this year, Zydus had entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Gilead Sciences Inc to manufacture and sell Remdesivir, the investigational drug, which has been issued an Emergency Use Authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to treat patients suffering from severe symptoms of Covid-19. The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) for the drug has been developed and manufactured at the group’s API manufacturing facilities in Gujarat. Incidentally, Zydus Cadila’s vaccine candidate ZyCov-D is now in phase II of the clinical trials.