Goa Antibiotics Private Limited, a central public sector undertaking, has began a process to procure licence to produce hydroxychloroquine sulfate, which has been approved by FDA as new drug application in treatment of COVID-19 patients.
GAPL is a premier Central Public Sector Pharma company, is a subsidiary of HLL Lifecare Limited under the administrative control of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The company has manufacturing facility at Tuem in North Goa.
“The company has the licence to produce Chloroquine sulfate (Not hydroxychloroquine sulfate) but we have not produced it for last 15 year. But we have now decided to get licence for hydroxychloroquine sulfate considering the current demand,” said company chief executive officer Reju Skaria.
Skaria said that the company has been producing various pharmaceutical products depending upon the demand.
“We have a capacity to produce two crore tablets per month. We can utilize this capacity to produce any pharmaceutical product, for which we have a licence,” he said.
Skaria stated that there are difficulties in availability and transporting the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) required for the formations due to current lockdown.
