Two hundred kilograms of hydroxychloroquine active ingredient are on their way from Asia to Florence. They will be used to make several hundred thousand capsules of the drug that is now experimentally tested as “anti-navirus”: it inhibits the heaviest effects on the lungs and allows to overcome the critical moments of the disease.
The Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, commissioned the historic Florentine facility, present here since 1931, to produce the drug from the active ingredient, by a decree issued by the Premier Conte on 7 April last.
The first anti-convirus step was the production of disinfectant gel. Two thousand litres per day, distributed throughout Italy, in particular in the hospitals of Bergamo and Piacenza. A huge production carried out by the Military Pharmaceutical Institute of Florence on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
The liquid is a disinfectant mainly for hands that is produced according to “the World Health Organization’s formulation”. Denatured ethyl alcohol (833.3 ml), hydrogen peroxide (41.7 ml), glycerol (4.5 ml) and purified water (q.b). These are the ingredients that the experts of the military pharmaceutical chemical plant in Florence (Scfm) follow to produce one litre of hydroalcoholic solution. The disinfectant has a virucidal action that kills the virus in 60 seconds.
Stabilimento Chimico Farmaceutico Militare
Florence, Tuscany