COVID-19 CURE: Glenmark Become the First Pharmaceutical Company in India to Obtained Endorsement for the usage of Favipiravir as a Corona drug!

The Drug Controller-General of India (DCGI) allowed Mumbai-based Glenmark Pharmaceuticals to manufacture the antiviral medicine Favipiravir to handle coronavirus sufferers across the country. A pack of 34 pills of FabiFlu has been priced at Rs 3,500 (Rs 103 per tablet)

The national pharmaceutical giant declared the launch of the primary oral Favipiravir following the “FabiFlu” brand, alleging that it’s backed by strong clinical confirmation showing boosting results in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.

What is Favipiravir?

In particular, Favipiravir has been adopted in Japan since 2014 to treat new or re-emerging influenza disease epidemics. It has a peerless mechanism of action since it’s converted into an energetic phosphorylated form (favipiravir-RTP) in cells and is identified as a substrate by viral RNA polymerase, so inhibiting the activity of RNA polymerase. The pill will be available as a prescription medicine for Rs 103 per dose, with a suggested dose of 1800 mg twice each day on day 1, supported by 800 mg twice daily until day 14.

The endorsement issued after Glenmark proclaimed Saturday that its antiviral drug Favipiravir has exhibited a clinical rehabilitation of up to 88 percent in mild-to-moderate cases of COVID-19, including those with co-morbidities. DCGI had also addressed Glenmark’s approval to promote the drug within the Indian market, which is supposed to be available on the market in the coming days.

On Saturday, Glenmark released a press release alleging that the drug confers clinical advances of up to 88 percent in patients with Covid-19. “The antiviral provides broad-spectrum RNA disease coverage with clinical rehabilitation seen in the 20 to 90 age group. 

Favipiravir can be used in COVID-19 patients with co-morbid conditions like diabetes and cardiomyopathy with mild COVID 19 to moderate indications”. It offers a rapid contraction in viral load in 4 days and provides faster emblematic and radiological progression.

With almost 13,000 deaths and a mortality rate of 3.28%, India has almost 4 lakh coronavirus patients as of now. On June 20, 14,516 new cases were reported in the country.

Elucidating on the importance of this development, Mr. Glenn Saldanha, Chairman and Managing Director of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd., stated that this approval comes at a time when cases of coronavirus in India are spiraling like never before, putting tremendous pressure on our healthcare system. We hope the availability of an effective treatment such as Fabiflu® will considerably help assuage this pressure and offer patients in India a much needed and timely therapy option.

“Glenmark has strongly evolved the powerful pharmaceutical ingredient and formulation of FabiFlu through its in-house Research and Development team,” said the pharmaceutical company.

Dr. Rommel Tickoo, Associate Director of Internal Medicine, Max Healthcare, said the drug could be a “potential game-changer.” We don’t have a lot of data, but the data we have is promising. We will have clearer information on the drug’s effectiveness in the next two months. The preliminary report is promising, which means they (Glenmark) know it works.

However, other experts state that it can help in the midst of increasing cases. But “It is not a magic bullet, as it is not the only thing we have to give. This is not a specific medicine made for Covid-19 and it has been found to be useful, but we will have to see how much it will be useful.”
 “The actual efficacy will be known when administered on a large scale,” said Dr. Vikas Maurya, Director, Department of Pulmonology and Sleep Disorders, Fortis Hospital. He appended, “The best thing is that it is an oral drug, while Ramdesiver is an intravenous drug. It (Favipiravir) can be even taken at home. So even if it is giving some benefit, it will be beneficial”.

Last month, Glenmark also reported that it is conducting another clinical experiment to estimate the efficiency of two antivirals, Favipiravir and Umifenovir, as a mixture treatment in moderate hospitalized COVID-19 patients in India.