Relatives of Covid-infected patients wait in queue to buy Remdesivir at Poona Hospital Medical Store on Wednesday. (Express Photo: Pavan Khengre) In a major boost to the state’s health machinery, a Wardha-based critical care injection manufacturing company has been granted the licence to manufacture 30,000 vials of remdesivir injection per day.
The development came on Saturday following an initiative taken by Union Transport Minister and Nagpur MP Nitin Gadkari pushing for licence to the company.
Genetek Lifesciences, situated in Wardha district, was granted a loan licence by Thane-based Hetero Labs Limited, one of the six original licenced remdesivir manufacturers in the country. A letter to this effect was issued on April 17.
Mahendra Kshirsagar, a director of the company, said, “We have been granted a loan licence by Hetero Labs Limited, which manufactures the drug under licence from the original American inventor of the molecule. If we get required quantity of raw material for capacity manufacturing, we should be able to produce 30,000 vials a day.”
Kshirsagar added, “We hope to get the raw material in about a week’s time and start production by then.”
Asked where these injections would be supplied, Kshirsagar said, “We will be giving it to Maharashtra state.”
Asked if Vidarbha will benefit from it, Kshirsagar said, “Definitely, since Vidarbha is the most affected region.”
Gadkari had hinted at the possibility of more companies getting the licence to produce remdesivir, over the past few days. He had claimed that he was pushing to expedite the process by talking to ministers concerned.
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