Coronavirus pandemic | Enough stock of hydroxychloroquine in India: Govt

India is the world's largest manufacturer of the drug, which is used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, malaria and lupus, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) Chairman Shubhra Singh added.

April 10, 2020 / 14:19 IST

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The government on Friday said that there is enough stock of hydroxychloroquine in the country and it is taking all steps to ensure that there is no shortage of the drug in the domestic market. India is the biggest manufacturer of the anti-malarial drug that is being touted as 'game changer' in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There is enough stock of hydroxychloroquine in the country and we are tracking its demand, availability and production on a daily basis," National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) Chairman Shubhra Singh told PTI.

India is the world's largest manufacturer of the drug, which is used for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, malaria and lupus, she added.

"Ensuring the availability of the drug in the country is our first priority. Only after meeting the demand here, the exports are being done," Singh said.

She, however, cautioned that the medicine should only be taken on the advice of doctors.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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