The Indian government on Wednesday said it has approved stepping up the production of anti-viral drug Remdesivir. The move has been made amid shortage of the drug following rise of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The current total installed capacity of the seven manufacturers of Remdesivir is 38.80 lakh vials per month.

"Fast-track approval has been given for seven additional sites having the production capacity of 10 Lakh vials /month to six manufacturers. Another 30 lakh vials/month production is lined up. This would ramp up the production capacity for manufacturing to around 78 lakh vials/month," read the statement.

As an additional measure, Remdesivir, API and formulation were placed under the export ban on 11.04.2021by DGFT to increase the supply of Remdesivir in the Domestic Market.

On government intervention, Remdesivir supplies of approximately 400,000 vials meant for export is being diverted by manufacturers to fulfil the domestic requirement, India Blooms said