Gilead Sciences announced that in response to the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in India, the company is providing its voluntary licensing partners with technical assistance, support for the addition of new local manufacturing facilities and the donation of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) to rapidly scale up production of remdesivir. Remdesivir is approved in India for restricted emergency use for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in adults and children hospitalised with severe disease. In addition to providing support to its licensees to expand their local manufacturing capacity, Gilead will also donate at least 450,000 vials of Veklury (remdesivir) to help address the immediate needs of Indian patients.

“The recent surge of COVID-19 cases in India is having a devastating impact on communities and has created unprecedented pressure on health systems. We are committed to doing our part to help tackle this crisis. Our immediate focus is to help address the needs of patients in India who may benefit from remdesivir as quickly as we can by working together with the government, health authorities and our voluntary licensees,” Johanna Mercier, Chief Commercial Officer, Gilead Sciences.

All seven of Gilead’s licensees based in India have significantly accelerated production of remdesivir by scaling up their batch sizes, adding new manufacturing facilities and/or onboarding local contract manufacturers across the country. While these efforts are expected to increase availability of remdesivir in the coming weeks, Gilead will donate at least 450,000 vials of Veklury to the Government of India to help ease the immediate need for treatment.

A company statement informed, “To safeguard against disruption of generic remdesivir supply to other low- and middle-income countries included as part of the voluntary licenses, Gilead is also providing support to voluntary licensees based outside of India to increase their production capacity. Gilead’s planned support will include the donation of API to licensees with a view to accelerate production.”