Leading Indian Biopharmaceuticals company Biocon has tied up with Sri Anand Life Sciences to manufacture the life-saving drug at Belagavi. Sri Anand Life Sciences has plants at Honga Industrial Area on the outskirts of the city and in Mudhol in Bagalkot district, will produce the drug in this joint venture.

Recently, Minister for Mines and Geology Murugesh Nirani announced that the Union government had permitted Sri Anand Life Sciences to produce the medicine.

The Belagavi unit has a deep freezer machine equipped with lycophilizer technology to store and maintain drug molecules at particular temperatures, Health Department officers said. 

The company is engaged in the manufacture of 500 different critical care, life-saving drugs at its plant in Honaga Industrial Area in Belagavi. It also exports injections to five countries, including Brazil. Company Managing Director Satish Gharge said, “We have the approval from the Drug Controller General of India and Drug controller of the state and both Central and State governments to start the production of Remdesivir. The production will start in the next three to four weeks.”

The government will monitor the production and supply of this medicine. Director of Sri Anand Life Sciences, Aishwarya Gharge, said, “Our plant will manufacture 80,000 Remidisvir injections every month and we have over 200 dedicated employees especially for this. Once the medicine is made, 14 days are required for the sterilization process. It will take at least a month to bring out Remdesivir from our unit. There is a shortage everywhere in the country. We are happy that our company will manufacture the medicine and help in the battle against Covid.”

Its products are exported to foreign countries, including Brazil.

The officers said that the Drug Controller General of India and the Drug Controller in the state had given them necessary permissions.

At a meeting in Belagavi, the Drug Control Department officers told Deputy Commissioner K. Harish Kumar that production would start in the next three- four weeks. However, sterilisation will take another two weeks after production. 

Source: The Hindu and The New Indian Express

Belagavi-based pharmaceutical company has been roped in to manufacture ‘Remidesvir’, which is given to critical Covid patients and is in short supply across the country