India-based drugmaker Jubilant Life Sciences on Tuesday said that “It’s subsidiary Jubilant Generics Limited has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Gilead Sciences to manufacture and sell remdesivir in 217 countries including India.”
In a statement issued, Jubilant said, “Under the licensing agreement, the company has the right to receive technology transfers through the Gilead manufacturing process to scale up production to enable expedited access of the drug to the COVID-19 patients upon the approval by regulatory authorities in their respective countries.”
Earlier, Gilead said that “It is in talks with several chemical and drug makers to produce its experimental COVID-19 drug remdesivir for Europe, Asia, and the developing world.”
Speaking on the partnership, Shyam Bhartia and Hari Bhartia, Co-Chairman and Managing Director, Jubilant Life Sciences said, “We are happy to strengthen our partnership with Gilead to license remdevisir. Based on initial data shows promise to be a potential therapy for coronavirus, a pandemic creating unprecedented health and global economic crisis.”
“We will be monitoring the clinical trials and regulatory approvals very closely and would be ready to launch the drug shortly after the required regulatory approvals. We also plan to produce the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (“API”) in-house, helping it achieve cost-effectiveness and consistent availability,” it added.
Last week, Gilead received the US Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization for using remdesivir as a treatment against COVID-19, after it provided data showing the drug had helped COVID-19 patients.
It has also received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from USFDA to treat COVID-19 patients, which allows broader use of remdesivir to treat hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 disease.