On Tuesday, India’s Jubilant Life Sciences and US-based Gilead Sciences have signed a non-exclusive licensing contract for manufacturing remdesivir. This drug has been identified as a potential and prospective therapy for coronavirus disease.

The permitting agreement is for India and 127 other low income, middle income and upper middle income countries and the Noida-based company will do the marketing of the drug.

Jubilant Life Sciences chairman and managing director Shyam Bhartia and Hari S Bhartia, respectively said in a statement that they will monitor the clinical trials and regulatory approvals thoroughly and would launch the drug shortly once the regulatory approvals are done. They are also planning to produce the drug’s active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in-house that will helps its cost effectiveness and constant availability.

It was reported on 5th May that Gilead Sciences was in talks with various Indian companies including Jubilant Life Sciences for a licensing agreement.

Also, Jubilant has the right to have a technology transfer of Gilead Sciences’ manufacturing process to increase production to allow accelerated access of the medicine to coronavirus patients after approvals by regulatory authorities in respective countries.

Remdesivir is one of the most observed drug used for the treatment of COVID-19. The drug has received an emergency approval in April from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), hence the first authorized therapy for the coronavirus infection. The USFDA’s approval was based on results of the trials which had shown that the drug reduced the recovery time to 5 days from 10 days for moderately suffering patients.

Gilead Sciences is also in talks with other Indian companies for similar licensing contracts.

Source: ET Healthworld