India's Cipla said on Saturday that its manufacturing of the COVID-19 remdesivir drug was beginning to catch up with demand after the company sought to boost production amid a massive second wave of coronavirus infections in the country. Backorders and complaints over low supply started moderating in the second week of May, the drugmaker said, after it began ramping up production of the antiviral drug last month. Cipla's production of remdesivir is currently 5 times higher than the monthly output of 200,000 to 300,000 vials seen in the last wave of the pandemic last year, the company's Chief Financial Officer Kedar Upadhye told Reuters.
Use suspended immediately following complaints
Releasing a video-statement, Raigad Collector Nidhi Choudhari said that following complaints from patients in different hospitals, the district health authorities acted on them immediately. “On Wednesday, we had received around 510 vials of Remdesivir which were distributed among various hospitals for the patients. After the complaints of patients developing several side-effects, we acted immediately and stopped the use of all the doses,” said Choudhari and added that the situation is now under control and the condition of all the patients is stable. There is no cause for worry.
90 out of 130 patients developed side effects
A district official said that out of a particular Hetero batch of its Remdesivir brand ‘Covifor’ injection, 130 patients were given the doses out of which a staggering 90 reported the side-effects, shaking the already-stressed local medical authorities. On learning of the matter, the FDA authorities in Mumb