Mylan launches generic remdesivir at ~4,800

The drug, Desrem, will be made at the firm’s Bengaluru facility

Pharma major Mylan on Monday commercially launched the generic version of remdesivir under the brand name ‘Desrem’ in India. The drug would be priced at ~4,800 per 100 mg vial. The drug is approved for treatment of Covid-19 patients in severe cases, Mylan said in a statement.

In order to meet the growing demand of life-saving drug remdesivir to treat Covid-19 patients, US headquartered pharmaceutical company Mylan has launched the product under the brand name Desrem.

The company has also launched a 24x7 helpline where patients and healthcare practitioners can access information about the drug and its availability.

Priced at ~4,800 per vial, the drug will be manufactured at the company’s stateof-the -art injectable facility in Bengaluru, which will work to service the demand in India and other export markets where Mylan has received a licence from Gilead for the commercialisation of remdesivir.

“In the wake of increasing cases of Covid-19 across India, Mylan remains committed to continue its efforts in the fight against the pandemic. With the launch of Desrem and our national 24x7 helpline, we aim to enhance access to this critical medicine, used for treating adults and children with severe presentations of Covid-19,” said Rakesh Bamzai, company’s president for India and emerging markets.

Remdesivir is also being sold under the brands Cipremi by Cipla and Covifor by Hetero.

While Cipla has priced the injectable drug at ~4,000 per vial, Hetero has priced it at ~5,400 per vial. Both these companies have also rolled out helplines through which they share information on availability and prices in order to contain black marketing.

While Hetero has so far supplied 20,000 vials of the drug in the domestic market, Sovereign Pharma, which has been cotracted to manufacture Cipremi, has the capacity to scale up production to 95,000 vials per month, according to reports.

The drug is being sold at 6-7 times the maximum retail price (MRP) in the black market but there is still no decision on capping the price of the medicine in the market.

Mylan said the company would work closely with the regulatory authorities to ensure that the product is available to the patients in need and will closely monitor the situation relating to supplies to curb black marketing.

Several other companies such as Zydus Cadila and Dr Reddy's Laboratories are also expected to launch the drug in the India market, after which the prices might come down.

The drug works by faking out genetic building blocks and thus interrupting viral replication. This stops the virus from making copies of itself, reducing the viral load. While clinical trials have shown that remdesivir helps shorten the recovery time and in turn the hospital stay, it does not reduce mortality.