Dr. Reddy’s lab launches antiviral drug Avigan in India, will provide free home delivery of drug in 42 cities

HYDERABAD: Generic drugmaker Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories announced the launch of the antiviral drug Avigan (Favipiravir) 200 mg tablets in India for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 disease on Wednesday.

The launch is part of a global licensing agreement with innovator Japanese drug giant Fujifilm Toyama Chemical that approves Dr. Reddy’s exclusive rights to manufacture sell and distribute Avigan tablets in India. Avigan has been approved by the Drugs Controller General of India.

“We are pleased to bring this important innovator medicine to the patients in India. The need for high quality and efficacy, affordability, and better disease management are key priorities for us,” said M V Ramana, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for branded markets (India and emerging markets) at Dr. Reddy’s.

“We believe that Avigan will provide an effective treatment to the COVID-19 impacted patients in India which accounts for nearly a third of the world’s Covid-19 cases.”

Dr. Reddy’s is currently taking up another contract manufacturing of Remdesivir injection being administered intravenously in a hospital for treatment of severe Covid-19 patients under the license from Gilead Sciences. The company has recently obtained the license to launch its own product in India by September first week.

Managing director Prasad said the launched Covid-19 drug is an innovator drug that has been backed by sizeable observational studies on over 2,100 patients with a longer shelf life of 2- years compared to three months of shelf life of the products available in the market, apart from containing six years of safety data for the virus Ebola and Influenza.

Dr. Reddy’s will submit the results of trials conducted by the Japanese company as well as its own studies with GRA to various global regulators so that they can get either full approvals or emergency use approvals to ship the drug to these markets.

The price for  Avigan (200mg) dosages will be at Rs 99 a tablet in a complete therapy pack of 122 tablets with a two-year shelf life, Dr. Reddy’s has also arranged for free home delivery service of the drug in 42 cities across India. Dr. Reddy’s may also look towards decreasing the price benefits to the patients in India by reducing the selling price once when it starts domestic production.