Remdesivir sells at 10x costs, NPPA unable to control as it is not notified as a ‘drug’

NEW DELHI: India has not set a worth for anti-viral remdesivir as a result of it has been accepted solely as an experimental remedy for Covid-19, leaving the sector open for black entrepreneurs, who’re mentioned to be promoting the drug for as a lot as 10 occasions the precise worth.

The Drug Controller Common of India mentioned in June that remdesivir may very well be included within the scientific administration protocol for Covid-19 as an experimental remedy for restricted emergency use on sufferers.

In response to the Nationwide Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, remdesivir has not been notified as a drug and therefore it can not regulate the worth of one of the crucial costly Covid-19 remedies in India.

The NPPA can solely management costs of units and merchandise which can be outlined as medicine below the Medicine and Cosmetics Act. A product or machine that isn’t notified as a drug goes out of the NPPA’s purview, folks conscious of the matter advised ET.

Within the case of stents and orthopaedic implants too, the federal government needed to notify them as medicine to carry them below worth regulation.

The DCGI mentioned remdesivir can’t be introduced throughout the ambit of a drug as but.