In May Month the CSIR received approval for the clinical trail of drugs to treat the Covid-19. The Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) has given approval for the clinical trials of the drug namely, phytopharmaceutical and favipiravir. Speaking to AIR News CSIR Director General Dr. Shekhar Mande said Favipiravir is a proven anti influenza drug used in Japan, China, and other countries while Phytopharmaceutical is a herbal medicine extracted from plants.
The drugs has been approved under emergency category and needs an undertaking from the patient. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals will be manufacturing and marketing "FabiFlu" the first oral Favipiravir-approved medication in India for the treatment of COVID-19. "FabiFlu" will be used for treating COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms and will be made available across the country. The Price of the Medicine will be ₹103 Each tablet of 200 mg and a strip containing 34 tablets has been priced at ₹3500. It will be sold at hospitals and chemist shops under strict medical prescription only.
Since the approval to the medicine is given under emergency category due to the pandemic, the patient has to give an undertaking before consuming the medicine and the medicine can be administered to patients between the age group of 18 and 75 years . The 70 to 80% of Covid-19 patients are under the mild and medium category for which the drug has been approved, and for patient of these type need not to be admitted to the hospital and can stay at home.
The Favipiravir medicine has also been used in Russia, Japan and China to treat such patients and has been proved successful. In India Glenmark is the first company to come out with an oral antiviral drug for mild and moderate Covid-19 treatment. And Company is also taking care of end to end processes of this medication starting from manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and development of formulation to manufacturing as well as marketing and supply. Company executives said this will help in reducing the pressure on hospitals.
Hetero Pharma is also manufacturing the medicine "Remdesivir" under hetero group's Covifor. Apart from these two medicine there are also other weapons in India's arsenal that are "Hydroxychloroquine" which is for the early use in course of disease and not for the severe patients, the treatment protocol that is "Blood Plasma Therapy" for moderate patients not improving with steroids, the "Tocilizumab" the off-label use for moderate patients with increasing use of the oxygen requirement and the list of useful medicine for Covid-19 is not exhaustive meanwhile the race to find a vaccine continues despite some of the promising candidates stated above the search of the vaccine is yet to be concluded. The drug is under restricted use, which means it can be consumed only under doctor’s guidance and supervision. People without prescription cannot buy it.
So dear reader hope the information provided above proves helpful to you and for your family. Stay Connected & Stay Home & be Safe.
