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FabiFlu is the name of the Covid-19 drug launched by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. It is the first oral Favipiravir approved medication for the treatment of coronavirus.

On Saturday, Glenmark pharmaceuticals a leading Pharma brand in Indiahave launched their new medicine called FabiFlu. It is the first every oral drug of Favipiravir. It is ananti-viral drug Favipiravir, under the brand name FabiFlu for the treatmentof patients with mild to moderate Covid-19. The price of each tablet is fixed at Rs. 103. The drug is available at 200mg with 34 tablets in a strip. Each strip price or MRP is costed at Rs. 3,500.

The drug also has gotten the DGCI approval. Both manufacturing and marketing of the drug is approved by Drugs Controller General of India. The situation in the country right now is pretty extreme and there is a lot of pressure on the healthcare workers. The chairman of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals told in an interview that they have hope that this drug would considerably help in the diminishing of this pressure. The pharma company is looking to provide the drug for about 82,500 patients in the first month itself. The drug will be a prescription medicine for a time period of 14 days.

The drug major is conducting a large study involving one thousand patients to prove the drug’s efficiency in coronavirus treatment. The result will be out in 2-3 weeks. The company is also confident of supplying the drug globally after the trial batch. The company has also followed the self-reliant movement of Prime Minister Modi as they have created adequate end to end domestic manufacturing capacity from raw materials to finished formulations.

Apart from Glenmark, the US based Gilead Life Sciences Remedesivir is the only other drug allowed as emergency drug in many countries for Covid-19 treatment. They have an injection based treatment and Indian manufacturers like Cipla and Hetero Drugs are the licensed manufacturers of Remedesivir drug. When Glenmark has priced FabiFlu at Rs. 3,500 for a pack of 34 tablets which costs to Rs. 103 per tablet, while Remedesivir injection is likely to be priced at Rs. 3,000- 5,000 per dose. The patients require a total of 5 to 6 of these doses and the total treatment would cost up to Rs. 36,000.

Remedesivir also looks like a promising drug, but the drug originally was used to treat diseases like skin, arthritis and now their generic version is introduced to treat coronavirus.

Glenmark got the approval from Drug Controller General of India after a clinical trial on 150 patients who happened globally including India, US, Canada, China, France, UK and other countries.

Favipiravir was first discovered in Japan in 2014. They used the drug for influenza treatment under the name Avigan. The drug is being commercially used in management of Coronavirus in Bangladesh and also UAE. Russia has also launched it on Saturday but Japan is still waiting for the trial run to end.

In Russia, the Favipiravir study showed an 80 percent plus success rate. This study was conducted on 390 patients. In japan the study was conducted on more than 2000 people and ithad the success rate of 88%. Apart from Glenmark, companies like Strides Pharma, Mangalam Drugs, Brinton Pharmaceuticals, Lasa Super genericsand Optimus pharma are few companies who are preparing for the launch of the drug in India. The production scale of Glenmark looks very promising and the other drug makers lack in that while the production of the medicine.

Glenmark will also be closely working with the government and medical community to provide the facilities and help required in the supply of the drug.

By Deepika Agarwal