Teva ships India's first consignment of hydroxychloroquine to the US
- IBEF
- April 13, 2020
The first consignment of the hydroxychloroquine from India, a drug used in the fight against Covid-19, has reached the United States.
The drug was exported by Israeli drugmaker Teva from its Goa plant (under Watson Pharma, a company it had acquired). “The company has exported 2.4 million tablets, and nine metric tonnes of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) used to make the tablet,” said Mr Udaya Bhaskar, Director-General, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil). Mr Bhaskar said he had spoken to company officials in Goa, who confirmed that it had reached the US.
This development comes a week after the Centre’s flip-flop on exporting the drug. Other companies which are ready to export the drug includes Ipca, Zydus Cadila and Laurus Labs.
Hydroxychloroquine is used in treatment of certain types of malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Earlier, US President Trump called it a “game changer” and asked India to released stocks of the drug it had ordered. As earlier India had stopped the export of drug, with no exceptions. Although the situation has changed a lot and the Centre opened the gates for a dozen-odd APIs, besides permitting limited export of hydroxichloroquine and paracetamol.
Both the international and domestic market has seen a rise in demand for hydroxychloroquine, although scientific voices call for its restrained use in healthcare workers handling Covid-19 patients or the family of the patient. The drug is concerned to have impact on the heart and the eyes. This, even as reports emerge of patients with lupus finding it difficult to get the drug from their chemist, something the government denies.
The value of the consignment is approx US$ 2 million.
Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.
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