Staff Reporter :
Bangladesh’s drugmakers Eskayef and Beximco have submitted the samples of the experimental COVID-19 drug to the Directorate General of Drug Administration.
Eskayef submitted its samples of remdesivir to the DGDA on Saturday while Beximco submitted it on Wednesday, said Ruhul Amin, a director of DGDA. The companies will be permitted to market the drug if everything is fine, he said. “They have to apply for authorisation for marketing the drug if the test results are satisfactory.”
The drug regulator has permitted five other companies to produce the drug: Square, Beacon, Healthcare, Popular and Opsonin, according to Ruhul Amin. A single dose of remdesivir will be priced at Tk 5,500, according to officials of the DGDA and the pharmaceutical companies. An adult patient may need up to 12 doses on doctor’s advice. The companies can initially supply the drug to the hospitals that have been permitted to treat COVID-19. It will not be available in pharmacies. The experimental drug developed by Gilead Sciences that failed to cure Ebola is now being touted as the best shot against COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The latest data on the drug showed that it reduced the time of recovery of COVID-19 patients. Remdesivir has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in Covid-19 patients – becoming the first medication backed by early clinical data to be made available to fight the novel coronavirus. Remdesivir’s potential to help COVID-19 patients is based on the ability to disable the mechanism by which certain viruses, including the new coronavirus, replicate themselves and potentially overwhelm their host’s immune system, according to a Reuters report.
Data from a trial by the National Institutes of Health in the United States showed remdesivir reduced hospitalisation stays by 31 percent compared to a placebo treatment, but did not significantly improve survival.
Gilead’s patent on remdesivir in theory means it has exclusive rights to make it, but international trade rules allow nations defined by the United Nations as least-developed countries, including Bangladesh, to ignore such patents and make drugs more affordable in those markets, the Reuters reported.
The virus has infected 13,770 in Bangladesh and killed 214 of them as of Saturday, according to government data.
