With over 4, 25, 000 cases, and the number rising exponentially India has finally approved a drug for COVID-19. An antiviral drug – Favipiravir with brand name FabiFlu has got the clearance on the back of its effective performance in the treatment of the virus affected patients.
Glenmark (the company manufacturing FabiFlu) has got the approval to produce the drug commercially. Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) gave a nod to the drug on Saturday announcing it’s launch in the market. The cost of 1 tablet of FabiFlu would be Rs 103. The pack of 34 tablets would come at Rs 3,500.
The dosage is 200 mg X 9 tablets on day one and 200 mg X 4 tablets a day for 14 days of the treatment. Glenmark administered the drug to 90 mild and 60 moderate COVID-19 patients during clinical trials. It showed 80% efficacy in the treatment of COVID-19 mild to moderate patients. Apart from India, Italy, China and some other countries have approved this drug. However, this is to be noted that the drug would not be sold without doctor’s prescription.
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Further, the drug is effective only in mild and moderate cases and not in severe category patients. Another drug Remdesivir has also got the approval of DCGI. Covifor and Cipremiv are the two generic versions of Remdesivir launched by Cipla and Hetero. Remdesivir, an antiviral drug first developed for treating Ebola in 2014.
