As Covid-19 cases fall, so do sales of favipiravir and remdesivir drugs

After peaking in the second half of last year, sales of two key Covid-19 drugs — favipiravir and remdesivir — have fallen sharply. 

Data from market research firm AIOCD AWACS shows that from a peak monthly sales of Rs 124 crore in November last year, sales of remdesivir have fallen to Rs 41 crore in January. 

Cipla’s Cipremi and Cadila Healthcare’s Remdac have been the top selling brands in the last few months. In January, too, the two brands sold worth Rs 15 crore each, accounting for 75 per cent of the total monthly sales of remdesivir.  Sales, however, have dipped for these brands too. From about Rs 40 crore (each) monthly sales in November, it has steadily come down. 

While remdesivir is an injectable drug which is administered in hospital settings, antiviral drug favipiravir is given orally.

From a peak monthly sales of Rs 117 crore in September, the figure for favipiravir has now declined sharply to Rs 18 crore in January. 

Glenmark’s Fabiflu is the brand with the highest market share here. Sales of Fabiflu, however, have fallen, too, with Covid-19 cases coming down. 

From around Rs 60-70 crore worth of sales monthly in 2020, sales declined to Rs 12 crore in January. 

Month-on-month sales of favipiravir and remdesivir are down by 90-95 per cent in Gujarat during February, says chemists and druggists. 

“Stocks of 8 to 10 companies are lying idle. Not even 10 per cent sales of previous months have happened since Covid cases – both for home care and hospital – are down. A lot of these stocks were non-returnable. Whatever could be returned are being returned since they have short expiry of 4-6 months,” said Alpesh Patel, President of Federation of Gujarat State Chemists and Druggists Association.

According to Patel, most of the stock has an expiry for April 2021 and new batches are not arriving. 

“Even remdesivir, which is typically administered from Day One in hospitals, in accordance with WHO guidelines, has seen a fall since there are no fresh critical cases or their rise thereof,” said Yogesh Patel, president of the Ahmedabad wing of the association. The Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA) data shows that monthwise sales of remdesivir injection in trade (in Gujarat) fell from 227,558 in November 2020 to 91,494 in December 2020. It was 20,683 in January 2021 and only 6,564 in February 2021 so far. 

On the other hand, while January and February 2021 data for Favipiravir tablet were unavailable, week-on-week sales in December 2020 showed a decline. 

The 200 mg, 400 mg and 800 mg tablet sales fell from 25,720, 88,630, and 15,560 in the first week to 8,220, 34,975, and 4,290 in the last week of the month.  On a cumulative basis, however, the two drugs have done well in the domestic pharma market. 

In fact, they have catapulted to feature among the top-selling brands for pharma firms like Cipla, Cadila and Glenmark. 

Since their launches (around July last year), remdesivir and favipiravir have become major selling molecules in the domestic drug market. 

Data shows that cumulative sales of remdesivir is Rs 510 crore as on January 2021, while for favipiravir it is Rs 471 crore.