Covid-19: India partially lifts ban on export of paracetamol and HCQ

HCQ is the same drug that US President Donald Trump had sought from India and warned of retaliation if India did not supply the drug

With coronavirus (Covid-19) spreading at a rapid pace in the country and the neighbourhood, India has partially eased restrictions on export of paracetamol and Hydroxychloroquine. It has decided to licence paracetamol & Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in appropriate quantities to all our neighbouring countries who are dependent on India’s capabilities, the Ministry of External Affairs announced.

HCQ is the same drug that US President Donald Trump had sought from India and warned of retaliation if India did not supply the drug. MEA said, “We will also be supplying these essential drugs to some nations who have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. We would, therefore, discourage any speculation in this regard or any attempts to politicise the matter”. “India has always maintained that the international community must display strong solidarity and cooperation. This approach also guided our evacuation of nationals of other countries,” Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava said.

President Trump had called Prime Minister Modi, requesting him to supply the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that is being used to treat Covid-19 patients and as prophylactic by the frontline health care workers deployed in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. The Modi government had imposed a ban on export of the drug since the coronavirus outbreak hit India….Read More

Coronavirus: Paracetamol prices jump 40% in India after shutdowns in China

The pharma industry could face shortages in finished drug formulations starting April if supplies aren’t restored by the first week of next month

In 2020, an outbreak of a new coronavirus in China killed over 1,300 people and infected over 48,200. The virus has spread to over 20 countries, including India.

What is coronavirus?

Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that are common among animals. In rare cases, they can be transmitted from animals to humans. The spikes protruding from the virus’s membrane look like the sun’s corona. It is from this that the virus gets get the name ‘coronavirus’…

India is facing the ripple effects of shutdowns in China with prices of paracetamol, the most commonly used analgesic, rising by 40 per cent. The cost of azithromycin, an antibiotic used for treating bacterial infections, has risen by 70 per cent, said Pankaj R Patel, chairman of Zydus Cadila.

The pharma industry could face shortages in finished drug formulations starting April if supplies aren’t restored by the first week of next month, he said. As manufacturers in China restart factories, nations such as India which depend heavily on imports of some raw material and intermediate goods from mainland continue to face uncertainty. Patel sees a substantial rise in prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients in the short- to medium-term. India, one of the largest suppliers of generic drugs to the world and home to about 12 per cent of all manufacturing sites catering to the US, relies on China for as much as 80 per cent of API requirement….

Does Paracetamol use in infancy increases risk of asthma?

Turns out, children who take paracetamol during their first two years of life may be at a higher risk of developing asthma by the age of 18, especially if they have a particular genetic makeup.

According to a new research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in 2018, the link between paracetamol use and asthma seemed strongest in those who had a particular variant of the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene, GSTP1.

However, study author, Xin Dai, warned that the research showed only that there was an association between paracetamol and asthma, not that paracetamol caused the condition. She also found that another GST gene variant, GSTM1, was linked with reduced lung function.

GST genes contain the instructions for making enzymes that use an antioxidant called glutathione to mop up the effects of exposure to toxins in the body and the lungs. This mechanism helps to prevent damage to cells and inflammation.

“Paracetamol, on the other hand, consumes glutathione, reducing the body’s capacity to deal with toxic exposure. We hypothesized that people who did not have full GST enzyme activity because of common genetic variations or deletions may be more susceptible to adverse effects on the lungs from paracetamol use,” explained Dai.

Dai and her colleagues investigated their hypothesis in 620 children who had been followed from birth to 18 years old as part of the Melbourne Atopy Cohort Study.

The children had been recruited to the study before they were born because they were considered to be potentially at high risk of developing an allergy-related disease. They had at least one family member (mother, father or sibling) with a self-reported allergic disease (asthma, eczema, hay fever or a severe food allergy).

Keep Reading…

Also Read : Does Paracetamol use in infancy increases risk of asthma?

Also Read : Aspirin doesn’t reduce heart attack risk: Australian study