|
 The
agreements will bolster India's arsenal of drugs to battle its
catastrophic second wave of the pandemic, which has led to an acute
shortage of coronavirus medicines including remdesivir and
tocilizumab.
The three Indian drugmakers - Cipla Ltd, Lupin Ltd and Sun Pharma -
will collaborate with U.S.-based Lilly to help make and sell
baricitinib in India.
Baricitinib has been given restricted emergency use approval by
India's drug regulator for use in combination with remdesivir for
the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 adult patients requiring
supplemental oxygen, Eli Lilly said in an emailed statement.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration initially gave Lilly an
emergency use approval in November for baricitinib in combination
with remdesivir to treat COVID-19 patients.
"More licenses to additional Indian generic manufacturers are
expected to be announced soon," said Luca Visini, managing director
at Lilly India, without elaborating further.
Last week, Lilly said it would donate 400,000 tablets of baricitinib,
to be used with remdesivir, to the Indian government.
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These agreements would expand the portfolio of COVID-19 drugs
offered by the country's drugmakers. All three companies offer
antiviral drug favipiravir, used to treat patients with moderate to
mild COVID-19.
Cipla, which also offers remdesivir and tocilizumab, said last week
it would be the local distribution partner for a COVID-19 antibody
drug cocktail developed by Roche and Regeneron, after the therapy
got domestic emergency use approval.
Separately, smaller Indian drugmaker Natco Pharma said https://bit.ly/3fa5SU3
earlier this month it would request a compulsory license based on
emergency approval for its own generic version of baricitinib.
India reported 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths on Monday,
dipping from recent peaks, while calls grew for a nationwide
lockdown.
(Reporting by Anuron Kumar Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi
Aich)
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