HomeNewsBusinessAvra Laboratories gets CDSCO nod to make Favipiravir API

Avra Laboratories gets CDSCO nod to make Favipiravir API

The company, in a press release, said it has developed an alternative low cost and highly efficient manufacturing process and is now supplying commercial quantities to drug maker Cipla for the launch of Ciplenza, the generic version of Favipiravir.

July 27, 2020 / 20:22 IST
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Avra Laboratories Pvt Ltd,a city based pharma company, has been granted regulatory approval by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) to manufacture and market Favipiravir API, which will help patients suffering from COVID-19.

The company, in a press release, said it has developed an alternative low cost and highly efficient manufacturing process and is now supplying commercial quantities to drug maker Cipla for the launch of Ciplenza, the generic version of Favipiravir.

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"I am very pleased to be working with Cipla and Dr Yusuf Hamied again, with whom I share a five-decade long association and friendship, during which time we collaborated on several projects to produce lifesaving drugs, including anti-cancer, anti-HIV/AIDS and several other generic products. The current pandemic has brought us together to work tirelessly for the speedy launch of Favipiravir", Rama Rao, a former director of CSIR-IICT founded Avra Laboratories, said.

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COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
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PTI
first published: Jul 27, 2020 08:15 pm

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