Coronavirus pandemic | Sun Pharma commits Rs 25 cr worth of drugs, sanitisers to fight COVID-19

"The company is committed to working closely with the governments and relevant stakeholders to ensure that there is uninterrupted supply of medicines," Sun Pharma said in a statement.

PTI

March 28, 2020 / 18:38 IST

26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Sun Pharmaceutical Industries will donate Rs 25 crore worth of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQS), Azithromycin, other related drugs and hand sanitisers to support India's fight against COVID-19, according to a company statement.

The national task force for COVID-19 has recommended the prophylactic use of HCQS for high risk population. HCQS is being studied by the World Health Organization (WHO) for use in conjunction with Azithromycin to treat COVID-19, it added.

"The company is committed to working closely with the governments and relevant stakeholders to ensure that there is uninterrupted supply of medicines," Sun Pharma said in a statement.

The company is constituting a task force to handle the distribution of these products in India, it added.

Commending the efforts of the entire medical and support fraternity in fighting COVID-19, Sun Pharma said," To help these front-line warriors, the company has repurposed its liquid manufacturing facility in India to produce high-quality hand sanitisers".

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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Coronavirus pandemic | Sun Pharma commits Rs 25 cr worth of drugs, sanitisers to fight COVID-19

"The company is committed to working closely with the governments and relevant stakeholders to ensure that there is uninterrupted supply of medicines," Sun Pharma said in a statement.

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Coronavirus pandemic | Sun Pharma commits Rs 25 cr worth of drugs, sanitisers to fight COVID-19

"The company is committed to working closely with the governments and relevant stakeholders to ensure that there is uninterrupted supply of medicines," Sun Pharma said in a statement.

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