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Remdesivir production adequate, ban on exports precautionary: Amit Shah

Amid the second wave of coronavirus, one drug that is making headlines these days - Remdesivir. With people now resorting to social media to source it and some even coughing large amounts of money to buy it, this drug has now seen an unprecedented rise in sales.

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Amid the second wave of coronavirus, one drug that is making headlines these days - Remdesivir. With people now resorting to social media to source it and some even coughing large amounts of money to buy it, this drug has now seen an unprecedented rise in sales.

Concerns are being raised on the availability of the drug. However, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the production of the life-saving drug is 'adequate' and as a precautionary measure its export has been banned.

"The production of Remdisivir is adequate. We have banned export as precautionary but in panic, people are buying in bulk which is leading to a shortage," Shah said on Sunday, 

"I appeal to the people to buy it when only the doctor prescribes," he added.

The response comes after many state governments, including Maharashtra, have complained about the shortage of the injections.

Remdesivir and COVID-19

When the world was struck by the COVID-19 pandemic, the drug was found to be useful in fighting SARS-COV-2 and it was given authorisation for emergency use. Remdesivir has been used indiscriminately since then which has ultimately led to a severe scarcity of the drug in India.

Dr Neeraj Nischal, professor, internal medicine at AIIMS, while speaking to TOI stated most people don’t require the drug for surviving COVID-19 and to think that Remdesivir as a miracle cure for Covid is wrong.

“Use of Remdesivir for treatment of Covid has very specific indications. It is beneficial only in a very small subset (in terms of shortening the time to recovery by approximately five days) of patients early in the disease and on low-flow oxygen. Outside this group of patients, Remdesivir really is not much better than placebo for Covid,” he said.

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