Bangladesh's Beximco pharmaceuticals Ltd. said that it has become the world's first company to start selling the generic version of Gilead Science Inc.'s antiviral drug on mounting urgency to treat the infection caused by the deadly coronavirus across the debeloping world.
The Dhaka based Baximco, which counts Norges Bank as one of its investors, will sell remdesivir for about 71$ (6000 BDT) a vial to private clinics but will give it free to state-run hospitals to treating Covid-19 patients.
Norway's Norges Bank the world's biggest sovereign fund controls 3% of Beximco according to data complied by Bloomberg.
Beximco will sell the drug under the brand name bemsivir, according to the statement of the compan.
The chief operating officer of the company mentioned this news in an interview.
" A critically ill Covid-19 patients will need at least six vials", he said.
Bangladesh can produce generic versions of patented drugs under World Trade Organisation (WTO) provisions that grant least developed countries a wavier from seeking licenses.
Remdesivir was cleared by U.S drug regulator for emergency use in Covid-19 patients, becoming the first medication backed by early clinical data to be made available to fight the novel pathogen.
Note: Bangladesh has now more than 30,000 infected patients as of today, 2.00 pm.
These disease has killed 386. The number of infection and death rate in rising alarmingly.
Also Bangladesh reports first Covid-19 case at Rohingya Refugee Camp.
Let's hope the side effects of this medication will not be as worse as what we had in the past with many meds and vaccinations that were not properly tested. The medical magazine The Lancet is very sceptic about it.
I wonder why you have so many infected people. East Europe has hardly any and in Europe the infections are decreasing since March 23, 2020. Are all people diabetic, overweight, high blood pressure?
With us we never did wear a face mask. 💕