Remdesivir short in supply, Pune seeks vials from Mumbai

The Pune divisional commissioner has written to the BMC seeking supply 20,000 vials of Remdesivir with the former unable to procure it from manufacturers due to high demand and low supply.

BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said they have not yet decided whether BMC can deliver the stock. “The Pune administration has been trying to procure Remdesivir unsuccessfully in the past week. We have been contacting various potential suppliers but we always get the reply that stocks are not available,” Saurabh Rao wrote to BMC.

He has assured to pay Rs 1,568 per vial cost to BMC for the stock. “This supply will go a long way in saving many precious human lives for which we will be thankful to BMC,” the letter stated.

Maharashtra’s current daily requirement for Remdesivir is over 50,000 vials a day. Each patient requires a six-vial dose. Across India, there are seven manufacturers of Remdesivir. Most have scaled up production in March after noting a surge in Covid-19 cases and demand for the anti-viral drug.

The time period for production and sterility tests, however, takes 20 to 25 days before the drug can hit the market. With demand high, private hospitals are unable to stock Remdesivir and have forced patients to procure it.

On April 7, BMC had floated a bid to buy 2 lakh Remdesivir vials, and got only one bidder, Mylan, which quoted Rs 1,568 per vial. It had placed a purchase order with Mylan the same day and received 25,000 vials in the first batch. Satara district hospital and Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation have also placed an order of 10,000 vials each with Mylan.

On Thursday, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that Remdesivir will be made available to private hospitals as well.
“Now that export is prohibited, we are trying our best to get stock for Maharashtra,” Tope said.