Visakhapatnam: Permission granted to Dr Reddy's Lab to manufacture Remdesivir

Visakhapatnam: Keeping in view the pandemic situation prevailing in the State and also the ever increasing requirement of Remdesivir injection, the lifesaving drug for the corona affected patients, approval is granted on war footing in just a couple of hours on receipt of their application to Dr Reddy's Lab, FTO IX Unit located in VSEZ at Duvvada, says A Rama Mohan Reddy, Development Commissioner, VSEZ.

He said in normal conditions the proposal is usually taken to UAC, but keeping in view the dire exigency, the same has been approved by a committee of VSEZ, and the same will now be taken to UAC for ratification.

The unit has got a valid drug licence issued on April 30, 2021, and it lasts for 3 years. The unit will make 3.5 lakh vials of 100mg/ml injections and 7 lakh of 500mg/5 ml as per the proposal submitted to VSEZ.

The approval has been granted under Rule 19(2) of SEZ Rules 2006, says Reddy. And finally the product is likely to be available in June, as per the unit head Menon.

Though Remdesivir is already approved for manufacture in VSEZ at Hetero SEZ Nakkapalli, sometime back, the same is in the form of API, which is again sent to their DTA unit at Hyderabad for making vials and the same are brought again to the State of AP to meet with the requirement of Covid patients.