Glenmark cuts price of COVID-19 drug by 27% to Rs 75 per tablet

The company has also completed the phase 3 clinical trial with Favipiravir (FabiFlu) in mild to moderate COVID-19 patients in India.

PTI

July 13, 2020 / 19:35 IST

26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Drug firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Monday said it has cut price of antiviral drug Favipiravir - sold under the brand name FabiFlu for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 - by 27 per cent to Rs 75 per tablet.

The company had launched the drug last month at a price of Rs 103 per tablet.

In a regulatory filing Glenmark announced a price reduction of 27 per cent for FabiFlu. The new maximum retail price (MRP) is Rs 75 per tablet, it said.

"The price reduction has been made possible through benefits gained from higher yields and better scale, as both the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and formulations are made at Glenmark's facilities in India, the benefits of which are being passed on to patients in the country," the filing said.

The API is manufactured at the company's Ankleshwar plant, while the formulation is being manufactured at its Baddi plant in Himachal Pradesh.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

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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