Glenmark receives DCGI nod to conduct COVID-19 clinical trials

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, a research-led integrated global pharmaceutical company, announced that it has received an approval from Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct clinical trials on Favipiravir Antiviral tablets on COVID-19 patients. The product is a generic version of Avigan of Fujifilm Toyama Chemical Limited (Japan), a subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation.

Favipiravir has demonstrated activity against influenza viruses and has been approved in Japan for the treatment of novel influenza virus infections. Recently in the past few months, post the outbreak of COVID-19, multiple clinical trials have been initiated on COVID-19 patients in China, Japan and in US.

Speaking on the announcement, Sushrut Kulkarni, Executive Vice President and Global R&D of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said that after having successfully developed the API and the formulations through its in-house R&D team, Glenmark was all geared to immediately begin clinical trials on Favipiravir on COVID-19 patients in India, which could become a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients if the initial trials are successful.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd (GPL) is a global research-led pharmaceutical company with a presence across generics, speciality and OTC business with operations in over 50 countries. Glenmark’s key therapy focus areas globally are respiratory, dermatology and oncology. It ranked among the top 80 pharma & biotech companies of the world in terms of revenue.

At 10.45 am on Thursday, the stock was trading at Rs 348.15, up by 5.60 per cent or Rs 18.45 per share. The 52-week high is recorded at Rs 639.35 and the 52-week low is Rs 168 on BSE.