Covid-19: Maharashtra govt fixes remdesivir price to tackle overcharging, shortage

New Delhi: Amid coronavirus pandemic, Maharashtra government has fixed price of remdesivir to ensure affordable supply and to tackle overcharging, shortage.

Only 59 stipulated medical stores across the state have been allowed to sell remdesivir at the fixed price.

Maharashtra government's price fixing order for remdesivir is applicable to private hospitals as well. The government said it will help make the drug affordable for patients in private hospitals across the state.

The price of remdesivir has been fixed at ₹2,240 per 100 mg vial at hospitals and at ₹2,360 at chemist stores in the state. A patient needs up to six vials.

In a 14 October circular, principal health secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas had put out a new distribution plan for the anti-viral drug.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally increased to 15,64,615 on Thursday with addition of 10,226 cases, a state health official said.

The state reported 337 deaths due to the infection, which took the fatality count to 41,196, he said.

A total of 13,714 patients were discharged during the day. With this, the number of recovered persons went up to 13,30,483.

Currently, there are 1,92,459 active cases in the state.

The state has so far conducted 79,14,651 tests.

Meanwhile, a World Health Organization (WHO) trial that concluded Gilead Sciences Inc. remdesivir did not significantly help COVID-19 patients is reliable, a scientist who evaluated it said on Friday, as the US company criticized its methodology.

"It's a reliable result, don't let anybody tell you otherwise, because they'll try to," Richard Peto, an independent statistician hired by the WHO to evaluate its Solidarity trial, told reporters, adding that any benefit of remdesivir may be due to chance.

Gilead has questioned the findings that concluded remdesivir does not help patients who have been admitted to hospital, saying the "emerging (WHO) data appears inconsistent". Gilead was given data from the United Nations health agency's trial 10 days ago, to give it an opportunity to react.

The WHO trial results could also be significant for seven Indian drugmakers like Cipla, Hetero Drugs and Zydus Cadila, with which Gilead is in a voluntary licensing pact for remdesivir. Under the pact, the Indian companies can manufacture and sell generic versions of remdesivir and sell it without the need to pay royalty during the pandemic.