The Maharashtra government on Friday fixed the price of Remdesivir injection, used for treating critical COVID-19 cases, at ₹2,360 apiece.
The government has also put together a list of 59 pharmaceutical outlets where it can be purchased, covering all the major cities, towns and districts, said Dr. Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, public health and family welfare.
“The injection is available free of cost in the state-run hospitals. But private hospitals are also treating COVID-19 patients,” he said.
“The price of a single dose of the injection is fixed at ₹2,360,” Dr. Vyas added.
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The Food and Drugs Administration has issued an order accordingly, he said.
Meanwhile, according to latest reports, Maharashtra’s coronavirus cases saw an addition of 5,182 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the state’s tally to 18,37,358.
A total of 8,066 patients were discharged and with this, the total recoveries stand at 17.3 lakh. What is worrying though is the death rate, that hasn’t matched the drop shown in active cases over the last many days. 115 people succumbed to the virus taking the overall toll to 47,472. Maharashtra has 85,535 active cases of coronavirus currently.
According to earlier reports, the Maharashtra government had fixed the price of remdesivir to ensure affordable supply and to tackle overcharging, shortage.
The government’s price fixing order for remdesivir is applicable to private hospitals as well. The government had earlier said it will help make the drug affordable for patients in private hospitals across the state.
The price of remdesivir had 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.
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In a 14 October circular, principal health secretary Dr. Pradeep Vyas had put out a new distribution plan for the anti-viral drug.
Moreover, 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, 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.
