However, Cipla was very clear it does not want to get into vaccine manufacturing.
The patients were being administered paracetamol, and not Remdesivir drug, which was used for patients in the first and second COVID-19 waves, they said.
The health ministry on Saturday recommended the use of antiviral drug remdesivir in moderate stage of COVID-19 while backtracking from its earlier stance on hydroxychloroquine, saying the anti-malarial drug should be used in the early course of the disease and not on critically ill patients.
"They are extending support as they feel that this is the time we must help India. 'India has helped us and we must help India'. So I do not think we are looking at it in policy terms," the foreign secretary said.
'The world over, everybody is asking for the same medicines, same APIs, same KSMs.' 'However, there is just one supplier -- China -- for the entire world.'
Many companies globally are working on plasma research to develop and manufacture hyperimmune globulin therapies from plasma donations.
Speaking to reporters, Raut said, "A special Parliament session should be held. I am demanding this because I have been holding discussons with several prominent leaders since yesterday over the COVID-19 situation in various states. All the leaders accepted that the situation in their states is tense and is going out of control. Only pyres are burning everywhere. There is no space left in cemeteries. It's nothing but total chaos."
The number of COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly with 24,000 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours, he said in an online media briefing.
A trial has shown that plasma therapy does not reduce mortality or prevent progression of COVID-19.
Giving details of coronavirus situation in the country, Bhushan said the previous highest surge has already been crossed and the trend is going upward and that is a cause for worry and that is something they continuously share with the states and UTs and try to help them tackle the pandemic in a more effective manner.
A longer shelf life is critical, given many makers have started manufacturing vaccines and stockpiling them, so as to make them available in the market immediately after approval, reports Sohini Das.
The CoWIN portal will be made available in Hindi and 14 regional languages by next week, while 17 more laboratories will be added to the INSACOG network to monitor the variants of COVID-19, the health ministry said on Monday.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking that drugs being used to treat COVID-19 patients be made available directly at hospitals, and isolation and quarantine centres where such patients are treated.
Amid a surge in coronavirus cases, the Uttar Pradesh government Thursday decided to increase the duration of weekend lockdown by 24 hours, announcing that it will now cover Mondays too.
In a mass email to his supporters after his arrival at the White House, Trump asked them not to be afraid of COVID-19. "I'm telling you: Don't be afraid of COVID. Don't let it dominate your life! This is the greatest country in the world and under the Trump Administration, we have developed some really great drugs and knowledge. WE WILL BEAT THIS, TOGETHER!" he said.
'Now you see a patient, 10 minutes later the patient is dead.' 'The second wave is definitely much more dangerous, brutal and fatal than the first wave.' 'The number of deaths and infections in India today are very, very, high; the actual numbers are not being reported.'
The vaccine would be first made available to the vulnerable population and eventually, it would be available in the private market for all.
Cipla is among the three Indian companies that signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with US-based Gilead Sciences to make and distribute the latter's repurposed Ebola drug Remdesivir in 127 countries including India.
At a time when the country's medical infrastructure has become incapable of handling the pressure of Covid's deadly second wave, a parallel wave of conmen, black marketers and counterfeiters can be witnessed across the country. Geetanjali Krishna reports.
The endemic stage is when a population learns to live with a virus.
The guidelines stated that systemic oral steroids are not indicated in mild cases and if the symptoms (persistent fever, worsening cough etc.) persist beyond seven days, the treating doctor should be consulted for treatment with low-dose oral steroids.
Amid the growing queues of ambulances waiting for patients to be admitted with ventilators and oxygen, only time will tell if the state government has lost the plot or not.
Chinese officials hope the cases will come down in the coming days with more specialised hospitals being set up in Wuhan. China's ministry of science and technology said that a batch of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug, which will be put into clinical trials to test its efficiency on the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), is expected to arrive in China soon.
'Mucor is an environmental fungus, and it's much more prevalent in hot and humid areas.' 'The amount of fungus in the air is much higher in India than some other parts of the world.'
With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking a uniform vaccination policy for the country, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday assured her that the Modi government was firm in its resolve to help the state fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but also flagged more than 40 per cent positivity rate in some districts of the state.
The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to investigate how celebrities and politicians procured anti-COVID-19 drugs and injections to help those in need when the same were available only in scarce quantities across the country.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that mucormycosis or black fungus, which has claimed 90 lives in the state so far, is a matter of prime concern for it at present, and the state government needs more supply of the medicine used in its treatment.
Favivir is the second drug developed by Hetero after Covifor (Remdesivir) used in the treatment of COVID-19.
'Testing is a very good strategy if only symptomatic people are transmitting the disease.' 'Here asymptomatic people, with minimum, trivial symptoms, are transmitting too.' 'Testing, treating, tracing contacts and quarantining them -- yes, it will work up to a certain extent.' 'But more important is physical distancing, hand hygiene, cough etiquette and cocooning, protecting with reverse quarantining the most vulnerable people, senior citizens, people with other major medical problems.' 'To me, that makes much more sense.'
In a video, Ramdev was allegedly heard saying, "Allopathy is a stupid science and medicines such as Remdesivir, Fabiflu, and other drugs approved by the Drugs Controller General of India have failed to treat COVID-19 patients." His remarks caused massive outrage and the IMA sent over a legal notice to him.
The infant was born with the infection on April 1, as her mother had also contracted the disease, said Dinesh Navadiya, the trustee of Diamond Hospital said.
Police have registered a case against a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Nashik for allegedly damaging property of a civic hospital in Nashik by ramming his car into its glass entrance and trying to attack its staff, police said.
The Madras high court on Thursday urged the State and the central governments to ensure equitable distribution of medical oxygen, COVID-19 vaccines and other life saving materials, by ramping up the production capacity.
"At least for 15 days if people stay strictly indoors, like last year, we may expect better results. Please advise your government," the high court said.
Thackeray is scheduled to hold consultations with the finance and other state departments on Monday and discussion will also take place in the cabinet meeting later this week.
From rising prescriptions to the pharma sales force back on the field with full vigour and companies finally finding their feet with the digital marketing strategies - Indian drug makers have shown that medicine sales is certainly a sunshine sector.
Fabiflu sales have grown by 62 per cent in July. It was launched in June. This drug is being used by doctors for mild-to-moderate Covid patients even if they are in home isolation.
The claims were made after the Income Tax department had on July 6 raided 36 premises of the Bengaluru-based Micro Labs Ltd. across nine states.
This will boost availability of these items as well as make them cheaper, it said, adding that Modi also directed the revenue department to ensure seamless and quick custom clearance of such equipment.
It is the second death due to this variant in Maharashtra as it had claimed the life of an 80-year-old woman from Ratnagiri district on June 13.
