Maharashtra seeks compulsory licence for Remdesivir

The Maharashtra government has urged the Centre to issue compulsory licence for remdesivir, used for treatment of Covid-19, to allow various Indian drugmakers to make the drug that is in short supply amid a severe second wave of the pandemic in the country.

Compulsory licensing (CL) allows the central government to revoke a patent and give other manufacturers permission to produce a drug under a national emergency or circumstances of extreme urgency. This provision under Section 92 of India’s Patents Act is compliant with the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) agreement of the World Trade Organisation.

In a letter to the Union health ministry, Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte called for invoking this provision to improve supplies of remdesivir, a state government official told ET.


Drug companies that ET spoke with attributed the shortage of remdesivir to a slowdown in production when Covid-19 cases started to decline in the country. The sudden spike in cases since early March caught drugmakers unaware. They said supplies will improve significantly soon as companies are ramping up production.

Zydus Cadila, one of the largest manufacturers of remdesivir injection, said it expects to take monthly capacity to two million injections from the current 500,000.

“It is a question of a few weeks and supplies should increase as all companies are ramping up their production,” Sharvil Patel, managing director of Zydus Cadila, told ET.

A spokesperson for Dr Reddy’s said, “We are ramping up production (of remdesivir) and also bringing to market a liquid product that is faster to make and supply. We have also reduced our MRP by 50% so that price is not a barrier to access, and a much larger number of patients can access it.”

Hyderabad-based Hetero Pharma has also reduced the price of the drug to ₹3,490 per vial from ₹5,400.

Remdesivir is recommended for moderate to severe patients and not as frontline treatment. According to experts, in some cases, doctors are using remdesivir as a frontline therapy, causing a shortage of the drug.