A total of 25 crore pills, 50 lakh vials and sales of Rs 2,800 crore — this is how Indians have purchased two key Covid-19 drugs remdesivir and favipiravir in the last 15 months.
The sales of the drugs — which were running short of supply and saw constant SOS calls floating on social media — have gone up by over 2,000 per cent and 700 per cent since their launch in June 2020.
While favipiravir, an antiviral medication developed in Japan, is currently the subject of several trials around the world, remdesivir became one of the most sought-after experimental drugs for the treatment of Covid patients and is also part of India’s treatment protocol.
What data shows
According to data from US-based pharma research company IQVIA, accessed by News18.com, India sold 52 lakh vials of remdesivir injection and around 1.5 crore strips of favipiravir. One strip of the top-selling brand Fabiflu with the highest market share consists of 17 pills, making it 25.5 crore tablets.
The data showed that the antiviral category has posted massive growth since the outbreak of the pandemic. It shows that the sales of antiviral drugs — majorly driven by injectable drug remdesivir and pill-based favipiravir with 70 per cent total share — have tripled in the past year.
In August 2020, the category churned revenue of Rs 1,082 crore, which zoomed to Rs 3,601 crore by August 2021.
During the same period, the sales of remdesivir grew by 23 times or by more than 2000 per cent — from Rs 61 crore to Rs 1,413 crore.
Similarly, the sales of favipiravir grew by 8 times or by 700 per cent — from Rs 148 crore to Rs 1,185 crore.
While India faced a dire shortage of remdesivir, the sales of the drug can be more than these numbers as it was reportedly being sold in the black market after which the government ordered to tighten the noose and conducted multiple raids.
“The number of sales can be much higher, especially for remdesivir, as the drug leaked into the black market and was sold at much higher prices. Also, the sales could have been much higher during the peak but the manufacturing capacities were low,” said a senior official working in a pharmaceutical company manufacturing remdesivir.
The most-selling brand for favipiravir is Glenmark’s Fabiflu, whereas for remdesivir the top names are Cipla’s Cipremi, followed by Zydus Cadila’s Remdac and Mylan’s Desrem.
How sales shot up
In June 2020, when remdesivir was launched and India had around 15,000 Covid cases, about 1,000 vials were being sold, which increased to 3.41 lakh vials in September — the month in which India saw its first peak of coronavirus cases.
The sales further moved up to 4 lakh vials by November after which they started coming down as the number of cases dipped.
During the second wave, the sales hit a high of 9.65 lakh vials, churning revenue of Rs 287 crore in April. In May, when India saw a peak of Covid-19 cases, the sales of remdesivir reached 7.87 lakh vials.
Similarly, for favipiravir, the sales zoomed from just 46,000 strips in June 2020 to 54 lakh strips in April 2021.
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