No shortage of Hydroxychloroquine in India: Drug manufacturers

The Chairman of Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association, Gujarat chapter has asserted that there is no shortage of Hydroxychloroquine in India and the country's current production of HCQ is 35 to 40 crore tablets a month.

Speaking to ANI, Viranchi Shah, Chairman, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association, Gujarat chapter said, "Our current production capacity of Hydroxychloroquine is 35 to 40 crore tablets a month. This is 10 times more than our requirement. There is no shortage of HCQ in India."

He continued saying that India holds almost 70 per cent global capacity of manufacturing HCQ.

"Before this COVID-19 situation came into the picture, HCQ was traditionally used for treating Malaria and certain arthritis conditions. If we see the last year's consumption, the total consumption of HCQ in India was about 2.4 crore tablets. Compared to that our current production capacity is almost 34-40 cr tablets a month," said Shah.

"India is one of the leading manufacturers in pharmaceuticals. We export medicines to almost every country globally. Even during the lockdown with support of the Modi-government, we have been able to maintain the manufacturing and supply of the medicines. We are also in the position to cater to the international demands of medicines," he added.

Shah said that initially, that they were facing problems regarding the travel of their company employees. However, the government addressed this promptly.

"We have a limitation of workers but this is not a major crisis, the industry understands how to focus on essential medicines first," said Shah.

The government has already made a pool of almost 10 crore tablets with them so that in the eventuality of a spike we have a pool of 10 crore HCQ tablets available within India which is sufficient to treat 20 lakh COVID patients, he added.