NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: Medicines used for Covid treatment such as Favipiravir and
Remdesivir are in short supply in both NCR cities. A sudden surge in demand appears to be the reason.
The last batch of Favipiravir, according to some chemists that TOI spoke to, had April expiry dates and was returned to suppliers as demand was low since winter. “We do not keep much stock except for a few strips of Favipiravir since it is not used for any other treatment. The demand has shot up suddenly in the past 10 days,” said Anoop Khanna, president of the chemists’ association of Gautam Budh Nagar.
Suppliers said stocks for Remdesivir, which is used in hospitals, were also returned because they had reached the expiry cycle. “Since cases had dropped drastically, most private hospitals had been denotified as Covid hospitals and were not using Remdesivir anymore. Production too was cut. Production is now being increased again. More doses will be available within the week,” said
Gaurav Agarwal, a supplier in Noida.
He added the Favipiravir shortage would also be over soon as several companies had increased production of their Favipiravir brands. “Nearly all chemists in Noida should have Favipiravir in the next two days as supply has restarted,” added Agarwal. Rajiv Tyagi, general secretary of District Ghaziabad Chemists and Druggists Association, said supply of fresh stock of Remdesivir had begun but it was still not that high, and only around 2,000 vials of Remdesivir had arrived for hospitals Noida, Ghaziabad, Lucknow,
Gorakhpur and Varanasi.
Saurav Tyagi, an executive member of the association, said, “Favipiravir has just a six-month expiry date, so we had to return the medicines. We are trying to provide the medicine on-demand at present. It will be available in ample amounts from next week.”
Ghaziabad health officials said only Remdesivir is procured at the government level. About 200 doses were provided to Santosh Hospital, an L3 facility, a few days back and half of them have been used.