Beximco Pharma bracing for remdesivir export to 30 countries
Beximco Pharmaceuticals seem to be going right through a purple patch lately.
After grabbing headlines globally last month to be the first company to advertise remdesivir, the antiviral drug which has displayed promise in treating COVID-19 patients, the local pharmaceutical company is currently set to export the medicine to a lot more than 30 countries this month.
"We are in talks and have made a whole lot of progress in some instances. We expect that we can export out of this month," Rabbur Reza, chief operating officer of the business, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Without mentioning names of the countries, he said they have already been approached by some Asian, African, Middle Eastern and European nations.
"We will export the medicine through our government therefore we are obtaining requests through their governments only," he said.
Though Beximco Pharmaceuticals' stocks plunged 2.8 per cent to Tk 68 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday, the purchase price is greater than it was 90 days ago, according to data of the premier bourse.
Market analysts said investors are optimistic about the business's performance since it has produced a drug like remdesivir to meet up the growing demand of the local and international markets.
When almost every other listed companies suffered an enormous drop within their prices amid the fallout of the pandemic, Beximco Pharmaceuticals was faring quite nicely, they said.
Various other local companies including Eskayef (SK-F), Incepta, Beacon, Healthcare and Square also have got the go-ahead to manufacture remdesivir, a drug developed by American biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences.
Eskayef started distributing its version of remdesivir, Remivir, last month.
The injection, that was previously developed to take care of the Ebola virus but didn't work, has come to the limelight among the most promising treatments for COVID-19 which has claimed 375,656 lives around the world so far.
Data from a trial by the National Institutes of Health in america showed that remdesivir reduced hospitalisation stays by 31 per cent in comparison to a placebo treatment, but didn't significantly improve survival.
California-based Gilead includes a patent on remdesivir, this means it has exclusive rights to create it. But, international trade rules allow nations defined by the United Nations as least developed countries, including Bangladesh, to ignore such patents and make drugs more affordable in their markets.
The United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool, which is helping Gilead find partners, contacted Beximco asking if it had been considering the voluntary licencing for remdesivir, Reza was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
Gilead has since licenced five companies including Cipla and Mylan NV in India and Ferozsons Laboratories in Pakistan to make generic versions of the drug and sell in 127 countries.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Beximco Pharmaceuticals sent some remdesivir to Pakistan for three critically ill COVID-19 patients by a particular cargo flight.
A spokesperson of Beximco said they sent 48 vials of Bemsivir, the brand name of remdesivir, on humanitarian grounds and at the request of the Pakistan high commission in Dhaka.
"Beximco was requested by official authorities to supply Bemsivir for a tiny band of critically ill patients against a particular import permit issued by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan," he said.
Recently, a medicine manufacturer in Pakistan named Searle Pharma announced that it plans to import remdesivir from Bangladesh. The firm said it had entered into a special licensing and marketing agreement with Bangladesh's Beximco Pharmaceuticals.
"Searle Pharma is likely to import remdesivir in finished form (ready-to-use) to meet up the country's urgent requirements," the business told the Pakistan STOCK MARKET recently.
Beximco Pharma, listed on the Alternate Investment Market (AIM) of London STOCK MARKET. Norway's Norges Bank, the world's biggest sovereign fund, controls 3 per cent of Beximco, according to data published by Bloomberg.
Source: www.thedailystar.net
