On Thursday, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals from Mumbai announced to start clinical trials of the drug Favipiravir which has been recognized as the potential treat for the COVID-19 pandemic. This announcement was done after 9 percent of the drug was used by China and a Chinese official had come up with the state to media that a specific ingredient in the drug has been very effective for COVID-19 patients. It has helped them recover without showing any obvious side effects.
Favipiravir is being manufactured by Japan’s Fujifilm Holding Corp by the name of Avigan and has been approved as an effective anti-flu drug from the year of 2014. This approval for trials has made Glenmark the first pharmaceutical
company based in India to find a probable cure for the fatal COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed up to 1000 native lives until Wednesday.
"After having successfully developed the API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) and the formulations, Glenmark is all geared to immediately begin clinical trials on favipiravir on COVID-19 patients in India," Sushrut Kulkarni, executive vice-president for global R&D, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, said in a statement to the media.
Pharmaceutical companies from all across the world have been trying to develop a vaccine for this pandemic which has already responsible for more than 2 million deaths all across the world. Until now, only three potential vaccines for this virus have been approved by WHO of which Favipiravir by Glenmark is one. In Germany and England, human trials have already begun for the rest two vaccines on healthy individuals with an observation period of 180 and 396 days.
Medical authorities all across the world are under serious pressure to come up with a suitable treatment for this pandemic as the more it lingers, the more will it devastate the international financial structure by taking down national economies one after the other. It has already put the oil industry on shut down mode and affected many other major industries like steel, logistics, food processing and many others which are necessary for the GDP of a country.
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