12 firms allowed to manufacture drug for Covid-19 patients.

Byline: Ashfaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR -- Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has allowed 12 companies to manufacture injection 'Remdesivir' for the treatment of Covid-19 patients following shortage of injection 'Actemra' in the market, according to officials.

They said that a meeting of Registration Board of DRAP held from June 8 to June 11 allowed 12 firms to manufacture Remdesivir in liquid and powder form for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in the country.

The approval regarding powder came in emergency for the companies that had lyophilisation facility and could store the product at below 24 degree centigrade, the officials said. They added that for liquid injection, the factories having cool chain facilities of 2 degree centigrade to 8 degree centigrade were allowed.

The injection approved by Food and Drug Administration USA and European countries for Covid-19 patients will be made available in local market within three to four weeks. Its recommended dose is two injections on first day, then one for next four days. The patients may need five more injections, one per day on physician's recommendation.

Its price is Rs12,410 to Rs14,600 per injection. For some patients, six injections will be required and in some cases 11 injections, depending on the condition of patient and physician's decision.

The decision will end monopoly of injection Actemra, which has been in high demand due to rising Covid-19 cases. Lately, the patients have been running around the markets but to no avail amid reports of black-marketing.

Officials said that Remdesivir was more effective than Actemra. Actemra's importer Roche also gave a helpline number a week ago for getting the drug at DRAP-approved price with condition that patients should have RT-PCR test positive to be able to get it, doctors said.

A physician said he wrote to Roche that the condition of RT-PCR positivity would deprive about 25 to 30 per cent Covid-19 patients of getting the injection as sensitivity of RT-PCR test for Covid-19 was about 73 per cent. 'It simply means that 27 per cent of actual Covid-19 positive cases will be declared (false) negative through PCR test,' he added.

He said that the policy of providing Covid-19 positive test report for purchase of Actemra would deprive 27 per cent people, who suffered from Covid-19 but tested negative due to limitations of PCR testing.

Dr Awais Naseem, assistant professor of medicine at Khyber Teaching Hospital, told Dawn that even RT-PCR of...