The big story and could be a shot in the arm of India’s war on Coronavirus. The Drugs Controller General of India has given emergency approval for the use of a new medicine called Virafin to treat moderate cases of covid 19 infections in adults. Now Zydus Cadila, the manufacturer of Virafin claims that the drug will help patients recover faster and avoid further complications during the treatment of COVID-19.
The company claims that treatment also reduces the need for supplemental oxygen in patients. Zydus claims that it conducted trials in 20 to 25 centers across the country. And in these trials, Virafin helped control lung respiratory distress, which is said to be one of the major challenges in treating COVID-19 patients.
Those patients who are treated using the drug tested negative for Coronavirus within seven days, the company claims. Virafin will be available for use in hospitals on the prescription of a doctor, it will not be available across the counter.
The best part about all of this is that this is a drug, which has been repurposed. Essentially, it’s a medicine that was being used in the country and outside also, for Hepatitis C. Again, it’s a repurposed drug by repurposed I mean a medicine which already exists, but it has been changed in such a way and the clinical trials have been done to see its effectiveness against a new disease, the new disease being COVID-19.
For example. Remdesivir, as we all know, is a repurposed drug that was being used for Ebola initially, it’s been repurposed for COVID-19 now. So as far as production is concerned, that I do not think is going to be a concern. Yes, the production will have to be ramped up, given the fact that this is a medicine that has now got approval for emergency use in cases of moderate COVID patients. It helps in controlling pneumonia is what the company is saying. And this is what the trials have found.
It reduces the need for supplemental oxygen, which is the biggest crisis right now in the country because the patients are requiring more oxygen as per the government’s data, also. The increase in oxygen has increased. Apart from that, it helps in reducing the number of days the person continues to be COVID positive. within seven days, the company says the trials found the patients were tested negative. It’s also going to reduce hospital stays. So it’s going to reduce the burden on hospitals.
It’s also going to reduce the kind of burden that we’ve seen in terms of oxygen supply and the deficit that we’ve been seeing. And again, this is a drug production of which should ideally not be a problem, given the fact that it has been repurposed and already being used in the country for hepatitis C.
Having said that, we’re yet to hear from Zydus Cadila on how they intend to then ramp up production and what are we going to do. But this gives us an option to reduce respiratory distress, which is a major cause of death.
