Global drugmakers are working overtime to keep supplies coming amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. But in manufacturing facilities packed with workers, COVID-19 presents a particularly difficult challenge—and now one Indian plant has been forced to shutter due to a rash of infections.
Cadila Pharmaceuticals has shut down an active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) plant in Dholka, Ahmedabad, India, after 26 employees tested positive for COVID-19, Reuters reported.
Cadila ordered the facility closed Thursday and required 95 of its employees be quarantined at home. The drugmaker had also begun sanitizing the site, Reuters said.
The shutdown at the Cadila plant comes just weeks after another Indian manufacturing hub was temporarily locked down as a COVID-19 hotspot and underscores the dangers the novel coronavirus has posed for the global supply chain.
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To help keep the facilities running at full capacity, the Indian government allowed a one-time movement of employees from Chandigarh state to Baddi to help staff the plants, according to Business Standard, as well as a resumption of intradistrict movement within Himachal Pradesh, where Baddi resides.
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