PM Modi responds to US President Trump's praise for India's big HCQ decision amid Covid

Responding to US President Donald Trump's gratitude for decision to export recommended Coronavirus prophylactic Hydroxychloroquine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken to Twitter to state that US and India will win fight toger.

President Donald Trump has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allowing export of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to US, deemed as a possible cure for deadly coronavirus, saying India's help in extraordinary times "will t be forgotten".

President Trump and Prime Minister Modi spoke over phone last week. During call, Trump requested Modi to lift hold on American order of hydroxychloroquine, of which India is major producer.

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India agreed to lift ban on export of hydroxychloroquine to US. Three Gujarat-based companies would export se tablets to US, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said on Tuesday.

"I want to thank Prime Minister Modi of India for allowing us to have what we requested for problem that arose and he was terrific. We will remember it," Trump told reporters at his daily White House news conference on coronavirus on Wednesday.

In a tweet hours earlier, Trump praised Modi for his strong leadership and said that India's help during this crisis will t be forgotten.

"Extraordinary times require even closer cooperation between friends. Thank you India and Indian people for decision on HCQ. Will t be forgotten!" he said.

"Thank you, Prime Minister for your strong leadership in helping t just India, but humanity, in this fight!" Trump said in his tweet that went viral and was retweeted more than 60,000 times and liked by over two lakh people.

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By Wednesday night, more than 14,600 Americans lost ir lives due to coronavirus and over 4.3 lakhs have tested positive for dreaded disease.

Scientists and medical fraternity are racing against time to find a vaccine and a rapeutic solution to infection that originated in central Chinese city of Wuhan in December.

Hydroxychloroquine has been identified by US Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for COVID-19 and it is being tested on more than 1,500 coronavirus patients in New York.

Anticipating that it will work, given initial positive results, Trump has bought more than 29 million doses of hydroxychloroquine for potential treatment of COVID-19 patients.

India manufactures 70 per cent of world's supply of hydroxychloroquine, according to Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) secretary-general Sudarshan Jain.

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country has a production capacity of 40 tonnes of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) every month, implying 20 crore tablets of 200 mg each. And since drug is also used for auto-immune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, manufacturers have good production capacities that can also be ramped up.

Indian-Americans have welcomed decision of Indian government to allow export of HCQ.

"President Trump is graceful and grateful. He is honest when he says that he will t forget India's gesture. He is a true friend of India," said Al Mason, a Trump supporter.

"Thank you President! I think you are well orchestrating compulsion of history and demand of destiny that we and India be best of friends, joined at hip and yet as family, free hearts and minds to love across a spectrum of emotions, but always toger," tweeted Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra.

According to Johns Hopkins University date, 88,538 people have died due to coronavirus and nearly 1.5 million people have been infected. US has highest number of infections in world at 431,838, followed by Spain (148,220)and Italy 139,422.

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(With PTI inputs)