Medicine manufacturer Cipla said on Tuesday it is rising up the production of antiviral drug remdesivir, used in COVID-19 treatment, by manufacturing the drug at its Goa plant.

"Presently the requirement is enormous for remdesivir, also we're scaling up our internal production of Remdesivir," Kedar Upadhye, global chief financial officer of Cipla, told Moneycontrol.

Upadhye did not define the new capacity that will be inserted, but hinted that within a period of time, the business wishes to move remdesivir manufacturing in-house.

Sovereign Pharma has the ability to create up to 95,000 vials per month.

Cipla launched remdesivir under manufacturer name Cipremi at Rs 4,000 each vial in July. Cipremi is the most affordable of all generic versions of remdesivir readily available in the marketplace.

A patient needs 5 vials of the medication.

Cipla is among the six Indian generic pharma manufacturers who have signed non-exclusive voluntary licencing agreements with Gilead Sciences for its patented drug Veklury (remdesivir).

Moneycontrol reported that 800,000 doses of remdesivir are anticipated to be available in the nation in August as present providers enlarge capacity, and new producers prepare to enter the market with their generic versions.

<strong>Tocilizumab shortages</strong>

Besides remdesivir, another drug tocilizumab that Cipla markets under licensing pact with Korean pharma firm Roche is also seeing enormous demand, resulting in lack of the drug in the industry.

"For tocilizumab, unfortunately we are not able to do anything. But we're in touch with them (Roche) to facilitate provides," explained Upadhye.

Upadhye further said nobody was prepared for this sort of bump up in need, and it's hard for them to increase the capacity.

Upadhye said the company has the widest assortment of products and drugs for COVID-19, from face masks to sanitizers and drugs like remdesivir, favipiravir, tocilizumab, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, vitamins, among others.

"The notion is to obviously service patients. Some of these are in-license products. The margins are low. Whatever little margin we make is really invested in providing PPE kits and other things to doctors.

"The retained profits of COVID-19 products are hardly anything. In fact, it will be negative too, if I begin making a list," Upadhye explained.