Mysore/Mysuru: Jubilant Life Sciences Limited, an India-based Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Company, yesterday announced that its subsidiary, Jubilant Generics Limited, has entered into a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences that will grant Jubilant the right to register, manufacture and sell Gilead’s investigational drug ‘Remdesivir’, a potential therapy for COVID-19 in 127 countries including India.
“Under the licensing agreement, Jubilant will have the right to receive a technology transfer of the Gilead manufacturing process to scale up production to enable expedited access of the medicine to COVID-19 patients upon approvals by regulatory authorities in respective countries,” a press statement on the Jubilant Company website said.
Nanjangud connection
Jubilant Generics Limited has a plant in Nanjangud, Mysuru District. It may be recalled that the plant hit headlines recently after one of its employees (now identified as P52) contracted the Coronavirus.
Though the Karnataka Department of Health and Family Welfare has identified the first patient from Jubilant Generics as a ‘super spreader’ of COVID-19 in the State, it still remains a mystery as to how P52, an employee of the Quality Assurance Department, contracted the disease. Later, the disease spread to 73 persons, forcing the Mysuru District Administration to declare Nanjangud as a cluster case.
Senior IAS Officer Harsha Gupta, who was appointed by the State Government to investigate the actual source of the virus, submitted an incomplete report. “When we do not exactly know how the disease came to India, what is the point in spending hours on the Nanjangud cluster? The aim should be on how to control the spread of disease and not conduct a probe on the actual source,” he had said.
Production shut
Production at the Jubilant Generics was shut due to Coronavirus positive cases and the Mysuru District Administration quarantined the entire staff of around 950 persons in the plant and adjoining areas. The Nanjangud Plant manufactures Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) which in simple terms mean raw material to manufacture drugs.
It is not, however, clear if the production of APIs will start at the Nanjangud Plant as at present, the manufacturing unit is shut. Company officials at Noida were not available for comments and there were only security personnel at the Nanjangud Plant who had no information about production.
This post was published on May 13, 2020 6:43 pm