There was some good news from two BMC run hospitals yesterday. Two patients in Nair Hospital and another two in KEM hospital were administered an immunomodulatory drug to treat extremely critical Covid patients. The drug which costs over Rs.60,000 per dose, showed remarkable results, allowing doctors to get them off the ventilators.

The drug administered in Nair Hospital was Cipla’s Tocilizumab while the KEM patient had been given Biocon’s Itolizumab, which th CEO, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw announced will be provided to the BMC, free of cost.

This news apart, Cipla has sought approval from Indian regulators to launch experimental coronavirus drug favipiravir in India for treatment of Covid-19 patients. Under the auspices of Indian Council of Medical Research or ICMR, Cipla will conduct a limited trial prior to marketing the product as Ciplenza. 

The Ministry of Science & Technology said, “CSIR-IICT, based in Hyderabad has developed a convenient and cost-effective synthetic process for favipiravir. As a collaborative effort with industry, CSIR-IICT transferred the entire process and significant quantities of pharma grade API of favipiravir to Cipla. Cipla will be conducting the investigations prior to launching on this drug against Covid-19 in India.”

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