April 6: India has restricted the export of medicines and equipment used for the treatment of coronavirus as the country grapples with surging cases of the deadly virus.

India’s Directorate of Foreign Trade has banned the export of coronavirus testing kits and Hydroxychloroquine, which is used to treat malaria, effective from Saturday (April 4).

A notice posted on the website of the directorate states that the decision has been implemented with immediate effect.

Despite the ban, drug manufactures in Nepal say that the country will not face shortage of the drugs immediately. They claim that the they have purchased enough stock of raw materials to produce the medicine for at least six months.

Prithvi Raj Rajbhandari, owner of a pharmaceutical company in Nepal, says that most of the factories in Nepal are producing drugs with the stock of raw materials they had purchased before.

“Drug manufacturers in Nepal had imported raw materials long ago,” said Rajbhandari.

India started restricting the export of drugs since one month. The directorate has been time and again publishing new list of drugs that are being banned for export due to the domestic requirement. Initially, India banned the export of 26 types of drugs including cetamol. A few days ago, India added masks, sanitizers and other medicines used for the treatment of coronavirus in the list.

Drug manufacturers in Nepal say they are chiefly dependent on India for raw materials of medicines. According to operator of Asian Pharmaceuticals, Shankar Ghimire, the raw materials that Nepal imports from India actually come from China.

“Therefore, there is no need to worry if India bans the export of raw materials as we can import them directly from China,” he said.