Taking to Twitter, the ministry of finance shared a notification that said the Centre has exempted Remdesivir Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, Beta Cyclodextrin) used in the manufacture of Remdesivir – subject to the condition that the importer follows the procedure set out in the Customs (Import of Goods at Concessional Rate of Duty) Rules, 2017 – and Injection Remdesivir from the whole of the duty of customs leviable on their import into India.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted, “In line with PM Narendra Modi’s priority to ensure affordable medical care for COVID-19 patients, imports of Remdesivir API, injection and specific inputs have been made import duty free. This should increase supply and reduce cost thus providing relief to patients.”

Amid the shortage of Remdesivir in the wake of a spike in COVID-19 infections in the country, seven major pharmaceutical companies have already reduced the maximum retail price (MRP) of the anti-viral drug.

As per the revised price of major brands of Remdesivir injection 100mg/Vial’, Cadila Healthcare Ltd’s REMDAC which was earlier available at Rs 2,800, has been reduced to Rs 899. The price of Syngene International Ltd’s RemWin is reduced to Rs 2,450 from Rs 3,950. Dr Reddy’s REDYX will be available at Rs 2,700 instead of Rs 5,400. Cipla Ltd’s CIPREMI will now be available at Rs 3,000 instead of Rs 4,000, Maylan Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd’s DESREM will be available at Rs 3400 instead of Rs 4,800, Jubilant Generics Ltd’s JUBI-R will be available at Rs 3,400 instead of Rs 4,700 and Hetero Healthcare Ltd’s COVIFOR will be available at Rs 3,490 instead of Rs 5,400.

Booster dose

Meanwhile, a release from Serum Institute of India (SII), said it welcomed the recent announcement made by Central Ministry of Health and Finance Ministry to accelerate India’s vaccination drive. “The promising directives will help to scale up vaccine production, and allow states, private hospitals, and vaccination centres to procure vaccines directly,” its CEO Adar C Poonawalla said.“For the next two months, we will address the limited capacity by scaling up the vaccine production. Going ahead, 50 pc of our capacities will be served to the Centre’s vaccination programme, and the balance capacity will be for the States and private hospitals. Owing to the complexity, and urgency of the situation, it is challenging to supply it independently to each corporate entity. We would urge all corporate and private individuals to access the vaccines via the state facilitated machinery and private health systems,” he said.