Dr Reddy's set to make Remdesivir vials in Vizag

Visakhapatnam Keeping in view the pandemic prevailing across Andhra Pradesh and the eve-increasing requirement of Remdesivir injection, the lifesaving drug for the Covid-19 affected patients, approval is granted on warfooting in just a couple of hours on receipt of their application to Dr Reddys Lab, FTO IX Unit located in VSEZ at Duvvada.

VSEZ Development Commissioner A. Rama Mohan Reddy told Bizz Buzz that for the first time vials to treat patients would be manufactured at VSEZ in AP. He said in normal conditions the proposal is usually taken to UAC (Unit Approval Committee), but keeping in view the dire exigency, the same has been approved by a committee of VSEZ. He said the same will now be taken to UAC for ratification as a matter of procedure.

The unit has got a valid drug licence issued on April 30 and is valid for three years. The unit will make 3.5 lakh vials of 100mg/ml injections and 7 lakhs of 500mg/5 ml as per the proposal submitted to VSEZ. The approval has been granted under Rule 19(2) of SEZ Rules 2006, said Reddy. The product is likely to be available in June, as per the Unit Head Menon. Though the Remdesivir is already approved for manufacture in VSEZ at Hetero SEZ Nakkapalli, in Visakhapatnam district sometime back, the same is in the form of API, which is again sent to their DTA Unit at Hyderabad for making vials. The same are brought again to AP to meet with the requirement of Covid patients.

So far, the Hetero at Nakkapalli has supplied Remdesivir API to their formulation units Nitin Chemicals in HP and Aspiro Pharma in Uppal for making formulations (injections) and till yesterday the Honour labs, supplied a quantity of 89.29 kg of API.

It is very much on record that, the Laurus labs of APSEZ has supplied HCQ during last years' first wave of Corona to the tune of 38.3 mi tablets to various countries such as South Africa, Singapore, Myanmar, Belgium, Canada and USA for use by Corona patients. Now it is also in the planning stage to make Molnupiravir soon. According to Reddy, VSEZ has also given approvals for manufacture of Molnupiravir, an API, much sought for, making tablets for use by the Covid patients at their Honour Labs Ltd in VSEZ at Nakkapalli to the tune of 100 kg/annum on war footing and is already in the process of manufacturing.

VSEZ has achieved exports to the tune of Rs. 1.13 lakh crore during last year, and out of that Rs 20,500 crore (19 per cent) was contributed from pharma industry itself and has recorded a growth of 40 per cent during last year. Despite all odds, VSEZ is functioning smoothly after observing SOPs and during the month of April, 2021 VSEZ has achieved a net growth of 35 per cent till the third week of April itself.