The central government on Friday roped in five pharmaceutical companies to manufacture the anti-fungal drug Amphotericin-B as the cases of black fungus escalates in the country.

The five pharma firms include NATCO Pharmaceuticals (Hyderabad); Alembic Pharmaceuticals (Vadodara); Gufic Biosciences Ltd (Gujarat); Emcure Pharmaceuticals (Pune), and Lyka (Gujarat).

"Health Ministry along with Dept. of Pharmaceuticals & MEA making efforts for significantly ramping up domestic production of Amphotericin-B drug. Five additional manufactures are given license to manufacture within the country. Production by existing five manufacturers being ramped up," the Cente said on Friday.

According to the health ministry, the new pharma firms will start producing 1,11,000 vials of Amphotericin-B per month from July.

"The Union Health Ministry and Dept of Pharmaceuticals are together trying to proactively facilitate these five manufacturers to prepone some of this production so that these additional supplies begin in June 2021," the ministry of health claimed.

Amphotericin-B is an anti-fungal drug used for the treatment of the Black Fungus/ Mucormycosis disease. Until now, Bharat Serums & Vaccines Ltd, BDR Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Sun Pharma Ltd, Cipla Ltd, and Life Care Innovations(importer) were the five existing manufacturers of Amphotericin-B in the country, and Mylan Labs was the only importer.

According to the health ministry, the production capacity of the existing Amphotericin-B manufacturers was limited in April. As a result, the Centre decided to rope in other firms to ramp up the production to meet the demand.

The existing manufactures produced 1,63,752 vials of Amphotericin-B in May , as per the Centre's data. The government said the production would be further ramped up to 2,55,114 vials in June.

Besides, India will also import the anti-fungal drug to counter the surge of the deadly Covid complication.

"In May 2021, 3,63,000 vials of Amphotericin-B will be imported, thereby resulting in total availability in the country (inclusive of the domestic production) of 5,26752 vials," the union health ministry stated. It said that 3,15,000 vials will be imported in June.

Along with the domestic supply, the countrywide availability of Amphotericin-B will be enhanced to 5,70,114 vials in June, the Centre said.

Black fungus is caused by organisms called mucormycetes, which can enter the body through breathing or skin injuries.

These are naturally present in soil and decaying organic matter, but once inside humans, they can infect air pockets behind the forehead, nose, cheekbones and between the eyes and teeth.

Some doctors say there has been panic use of steroids to combat Covid-19 which has helped the spread of black fungus. Coronavirus patients with diabetes and a weakened immune system are particularly prone to black fungus.