Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Monday announced that it would lower the price of its generic version of favipiravir, Fabriflu, to $1 per tablet (around Rs 75), which is being prescribed for restricted emergency use on COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms.
The news comes as cases surge in India, with a record 28,701 new cases reported on Monday, driving up demand for drugs related to COVID-19 treatment. The Indian government had in June authorised use of favipiravir as part of the “accelerated approval process” and recommended use only in adults and not on patients with severe liver and renal impairment, or for pregnant and lactating women, PTI reported, adding it should be used with caution in patients having a history of abnormalities in uric acid metabolism or gout.
A typical treatment for favipiravir involves 122 tablets taken over 14 days, which at the earlier rate of Rs 103 per tablet, worked out to a treatment cost of Rs 12,566.
Under the new rates, the same treatment would cost Rs 9,150.
Glenmark announced the reduction along with a “1,000-patient post-marketing surveillance study”, which the company’s senior vice president and head-India business, Dr Alok Malik, saying it is expected to shed more light on the drug’s clinical effectiveness and safety in a large cohort of patients prescribed FabiFlu.
Malik added that FabiFlu had been launched in India at the lowest market cost compared to its cost in other countries that have approved it.
Glenmark said the reduction in price was due to benefits gained from higher yields and better scale due to both the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and formulations being made at Glenmark’s Indian facilities.
China and Russia had also approved emergency use of the drug.
However, some experts have doubted the efficacy of the drug. Doctors speaking to THE WEEK have noted that there is no high-quality evidence to suggest that it is either safe or effective, and that the trials which showed it resulted in faster clearance of the virus have been small and poorly designed.
Glenmark said they were also conducting another Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of two antivirals drugs Favipiravir and Umifenovir as a combination therapy in moderate hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients in India. The combination study, called the FAITH trial, is looking to enroll 158 hospitalized patients of moderate COVID-19 in India.
