Indian drug manufacturers are bracing for an increase in the prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) that go into the manufacture of a steroid which a trial showed as being effective in treating Covid-19 patients with severe symptoms.
The APIs, the basic raw material for drug manufacture, come from China and Indian drug makers depend completely on imports from there to make the low-cost, off-patent Dexamethasone, a class of corticosteroids used to treat lung and respiratory ailments.
In India, the market size of this drug is around Rs 50 crore ($6,5 million), and they are manufactured by several small and medium generic drug makers. Some of the leading brands in this category belong to companies such as Zydus Cadila and Wockhardt.
WE HAVE BEEN MANUFACTURING LARGE QUANTITIES OF BOTH INJECTABLES AND THE TABLET FORM OF THIS DRUG. WE HAVE MORE THAN ADEQUATE SUPPLY, WE WILL RAMP UP PRODUCTION IF IT IS REQUIRED,” SAID HABIL KHORAKIWALA, CEO OF WOCKHARDT PHARMA. “FOR NOW, WE HAVE STOCK OF THE API REQUIRED FOR FORMULATION.”
The API import price is likely to go up by 10-30%, but is unlikely to shoot up beyond that, said Anil Satwani, CEO of Symbiotic Pharma, one of the leading manufacturers of steroid APIs in the world.
The price per kilo of the drug’s API is about Rs 55,000-Rs 65,000 ($720 — 850).
Symbiotic Pharma has been getting calls from across the world since Wednesday morning enquiring about its production capacity for the drug, Satwani said.
WE HAVE A CAPACITY OF 150 TONNES AND FOR IMMEDIATE REQUIREMENT WE HAVE STOCK TO RAMP UP PRODUCTION,” HE SAID.
Symbiotic is one of the few API manufacturers that does not completely depend on China for the key starting material.