Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is to trying to accelerate the regulatory approval processes for the prospective anti-viral drugs to combat COVID-19.
The IICT is all set to hand over the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) to further develop the drug, Favipiravir, to Indian pharma giant Cipla and it has now tied up with a multi-national firm to provide API for another anti-viral drug, Arbidol.
“We are expecting faster regulatory approvals as Favipiravir has been used successfully in coronavirus patients in China, Japan and South Korea to bring down the viral load. Arbidol has also been extensively used and we have already made excellent progress in making the API,” informed IICT Director S. Chandrasekhar on Monday.
In fact, directors of various institutes made in charge of CSIR’s five verticals to combat COVID-19 made presentations to Union Health Minister Harshvardhan and Director General Shekar C. Mande updating them on the ongoing research activity via video conference on Sunday night.
The Minister was informed that Cipla is likely to come for approvals from the Drug Control Authority (DCA) in a few weeks for regulatory approvals. Since Arbidol is not in patent, it could take up to eight weeks for the pharma company to develop the drug after necessary testing and approvals. It was found that the Chinese had given this medicine along with an unknown herbal decoction.
Mr. Chandrasekhar also told Dr. Harshvardhan that the institute has been conducting research in alternate anti-parasatic drugs too. This has helped a breakthrough in the making of anti-parasatic drug Hydroxychloroquine, which India is already supplying in bulk to various countries, including the United States.
This could reduce our dependence on China for the API to this drug as IICT scientists have sourced the two key chemical raw material compounds of acetyl butyrolactone and dichloroquinoline for making Hydroxychloroquine. “This is a very important development towards maintaining the supply chain of the HCQ drug,” he pointed out.
The novel coronavirus has presented a fresh set of challenges to scientists, Mr. Chandrasekhar acknowledged and said: “We have drugs successfully treating HIV, Hepatitis-C, etc., so we will surely come out with an effective treatment and vaccine too. It is just a matter of time.”
