3 anti-viral drugs may treat virus
IICT, Cipla’s drugs to be available in 90 days
Three anti-viral drugs for treating Covid-19 to be developed by the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, and pharmaceutical company Cipla will be available in three months, if they get the required approvals.
The most promising drug is favipiravir that was used in China and Japan to treat Covid-19 patients. This drug was used in China during the time of SARS Cov1 too.
The second drug, baloxavir, is an anti-viral drug which has gone through clinical trials and its toxicology reports have termed it as safe.
The third drug, remdesiver, is an anti-viral drug but is under patent of Gilead. Scientists at IICT settled on these three after going through a group of 25 molecules that had undergone clinical
IICT WILL develop the Active Pharma ingredient and provide it to Cipla
CIPLA WILL check the bio-equivalence and develop medicines
PHASE 1 and 2 clinical trials will be carried out and reports submitted to the Drug Controller General of India
trials over the last 20 years. These molecules have cleared phase 2 trials.
Dr S. Chandrashekar, director of IICT explained, “We were looking at different molecules in our literature and found 25 anti-viral chemicals which have been tried at different stages. The toxicology report of 14 molecules was found to be safe. Three drugs from these
14 matches the RNA of
Covid-19 and is the likely anti-viral drug which will help to treat patients.”
IICT found pharmaceutical company Cipla willing to take the active pharmaceutical ingredient and develop the medicines. The company will have to pump in an estimated `15 crore, and probably more, to develop the medicines.
Bio-equivalence and formulation has to be studied before launching the product in the market. The use of favipiravir and its outcomes are being studied by researchers as it seems to be a most promising drug.
Cipla specialises in medicines to treat lung problems and scientists at IICT are upbeat that the drugs will help deal with Covid-19.