Bangalore, 24 April 2020: India’s Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, is getting ready to produce Japanese approved anti-viral, Favipiravir in the country to help treatment of COVID-19 patients.

This off-patent drug, marketed as Avigan in Japan by Fuji Pharmaceuticals was used to treat corona virus patients in Japan and China and reported good results according to preliminary reports.
Avigan (Favipiravir) was approved first in 2014 to treat Ebola in Africa. It was primarily developed to
treat various types of influenza as a second line of treatment. Glenmark has sought approval of India’s regulator, DCGI to make the drug in the country.

Meanwhile, a laboratory under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has announced that it has synthesized all the key active ingredients required to make Favipiravir in the country. CSIR director-general, Dr Shekhar C Mande, disclosed this to a television channel on April 24. He indicated that the technology has been transferred to a private pharmaceutical company for production that can happen after DCGI approval.

CSIR has also started limited clinical trial of an existing drug, Sapsivac, manufactured by Cadila
Pharmaceuticals, in COIVD-19 patients with serious condition. Sepsivac was developed jointly by CSIR and Cadila to treat life threatening infections in hospital patients caused by gram-negative bacteria.

“We think that the mechanism for prevention of Sepsis and this infection is similar, and
therefore, we got the approval for it two days ago to conduct limited trials. AIIMS Bhopal, AIIMS

Delhi and PGIMER, Chandigarh have tied up with us for the trials and they will begin after
ethical approvals are in place,” Dr Mande told the television network.

India’s Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, based in Mumbai, is getting ready to produce Japanese approved anti-viral, Favipiravir in the country to help treatment of COVID-19 patients.