Repurposed COVID-19 APIs in India likely to offer competitive advantage

The local production of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for some of the key COVID-19 repurposed drugs including remdesivir, favipiravir and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is likely to offer a competitive advantage for the formulations manufactured in India in terms of supply and price, says analytics firms GlobalData.

According to GlobalData’s COVID-19 Executive Briefing, COVID-19 has spread to 189 countries with over 6 million confirmed cases. The USA, Brazil, Russia, Spain, the UK, Italy, India, France, Germany, and Peru are the worst hit countries.

Recently, four Indian generic pharma companies Cipla (BSE: 500087), Jubilant, Hetero and Mylan (Nasdaq: MYL) received non-exclusive licenses from Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) to manufacture and distribute generic remdesivir in 127 countries. Limited global availability of the raw materials and lengthy process are significant barriers for the rapid production of remdesivir. Additionally, remdesivir is an intravenous formulation, and hence sterile manufacturing facilities are required. Gilead is expected to provide technology transfer for the manufacturing of API as well as the finished formulation of remdesivir.