Indian Firm To Start Virus Medicine Trials

Game-changer? Japan is increasing its stockpile of Avigan to three times the current level as it sees the drug as a cure for the deadly COVID-19.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said on Thursday it will start clinical trials in India of antiviral drug favipiravir, seen as a potential cure for COVID-19. The share price of the Mumbai-headquartered company shot up 9% after it disclosed that it had obtained the go-ahead for clinical trials from the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI).

The trials come in the backdrop of a Chinese official saying last month that an active ingredient of the medicine had been effective in helping coronavirus patients recover and it had no side effects either.

Favipiravir is manufactured under the brand name Avigan by a subsidiary of Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp and was approved for use as an anti-flu drug in 2014.

Glenmark said the approval made it the first pharmaceutical company in India to be given the go-ahead to start trials on COVID-19 patients in the country.