The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research on Thursday announced that Mumbai-based pharmaceutical firm Cipla is all set to launch drug Favipiravir for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
CSIR developed the process of using locally available chemicals to synthesise the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and transferred the technology to Cipla.
The drug has shown promising results in treating mild to moderate coronavirus cases during clinical trials.
“Cipla has scaled up the process in their manufacturing facility and approached DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) for permission to launch the product in India. Given that DCGI has given restricted emergency use for Favipiravir in the country, Cipla is now all set to launch the product to help patients suffering from COVID-19,” a statement provided by CSIR read.
CSIR-IICR Director S Chandrashekhar said that the technology is very efficient and allows Commenting on the development, CSIR-IICR Director S Chandrashekhar said the technology is very efficient and allows the manufacturer to make large quantities of the product in a short time span.
India has yet again witnessed its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with 49,310 cases reported in the last 24 hours, according to data from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
With these fresh cases, India’s coronavirus cases tally has gone up to 12,87,945, out of which there are 4,40,135 active cases and 8,17,209 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.
The death toll has gone up to 30,601 with 740 fatalities reported in the last 24 hours.
Maharashtra remains the worst affected state with 3,47,502 cases reported until Thursday.
