Amid worldwide demand of tablet Hydroxychloroquine after the doctors found it effective in the treatment of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the pharmaceutical companies based in Uttarakhand are facing a crisis of supply of raw materials needed to manufacture the much sought after medicine. In Uttarakhand many drug manufacturing companies have their plants and the State Government has provided licences to 60 companies to manufacture Hydroxychloroquine. All these factories are facing shortage of the raw material needed for the drug. The drug controller of Uttarakhand, Tajbar Singh told The Pioneer that request has been sent to the suppliers of the material needed to prepare Hydroxychloroquine. He however added that the state has adequate stocks of the drug. “We have 3.5 lakh tablets of the medicine in our stock in the state,’’ he informed.
Dose of Hydroxychloroquine is a standard treatment for malaria. Doctors treating the patients of COVID-19 have found that this drug is helping in fast recovery of the patients which led to unprecedented demand of the Hydroxychloroquine from all the countries of the world. India initially banned the export of the drug but now has lifted the ban and has said that it would supply the drug to the countries where it is needed.
Hydoxynovaldiamine (HMD) and Dichloroquinoline are the chemicals needed for preparation of Hydroxychloroquine. After the recent spike in the demand for the drug, the prices of these chemicals have witnessed an increase of 400 per cent. Interestingly China enjoys monopoly in synthesis of HMD.
Meanwhile the administration in Uttarakhand has given strict directions to the chemist shops not to sell Hydroxychloroquine without the prescription of the doctors