By Elizabeth Merab, NAIROBI Kenya
Kenya is expected to receive a new drug that has been found to shorten the recovery period of Covid-19 patients.
Remdesivir, a drug developed to treat
Ebola, was approved for emergency use on Covid-19 patients two months ago.
It is one of the two drugs that can work
against the virus.
The other drug is dexamethasone.
Remdesivir is in high demand after it
helped shorten hospital recovery times in clinical trials.
It is said to be more effective in
treating Covid-19 in its earlier stages than other therapies like the steroid
dexamethasone.
Because it is given intravenously for at
least five days, the drug is being used on people who require hospital
admission.
Kenya is among 126 low-income and
lower-middle-income countries identified by Gilead Sciences to receive generic
versions of the drug. It will be made by five companies licensed to produce it
for developing countries.
The European Commission on Friday said it
has given conditional approval for the use of Remdesivir in severe Covid-19
patients following an accelerated review. It made it the region’s first
Covid-19 therapy.
The approval to obtain doses for the 27
European Union countries expanded the global use of the drug after the United
States cleared it for emergencies.
Remdesivir has also been approved as
Covid-19 therapy in Japan, Taiwan, India, Singapore and the United Arab
Emirates.
The drug, which was trialled for Ebola
but failed to work as expected, is under patent to Gilead.
That means no other company in wealthy
countries can produce it.
However, through a non-exclusive
voluntary licensing agreement, pharmaceutical manufacturers in India and
Pakistan can produce and sell the treatment at a substantially lower cost,”
Gilead said in a statement.
“Cipla Ltd, Ferozsons Laboratories,
Hetero Labs Ltd, Jubilant Lifesciences and Mylan will make Remdesivir for
distribution in low-income and lower-middle-income countries as well as several
upper-middle and high-income countries that face health-care obstacles as a
result of the pandemic,” Gilead Science posted on its website.
Under the agreements, the firms have a
right to technology transfer from Gilead to enable them to produce the drug
quickly.
Generics are copies of brand-name drugs
that have the same dosage, intended use, effects, side effects, administration
routine, risks, safety and strength as the original.
“The licences are royalty-free until the WHO declares the end of the public health emergency of international concern regarding Covid-19, or until a pharmaceutical product other than Remdesivir or a vaccine is approved to treat or prevent coronavirus,” Gilead said. – The East African
No comments:
Post a Comment