Zenara pharma launches COVID-19 antiviral pills

Hyderabad-based Zenara Pharma on September 9 launched the first generic version of Pfizer's antiviral pill Paxlovid for treatment of COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms.

The company will sell nirmatrelvir and ritonavir in a combination pack under the brand name Paxzen.

“We have launched this product in India with an aim to bring the best treatment options against COVID within reach of patients in our country,” Dr Jagadeesh Babu Rangisetty, Co-founder and Managing Director at Zenara Pharma, said.

Paxzen has been proven equivalent to Paxlovid through a bio-equivalence study, based on which the company got regulatory approvals, he said.

Paxlovid is considered the most efficacious antiviral therapy against the novel coronavirus.

According to the company, this price has been capped at Rs 5,200 a box, which has 20 150 mg tablets of nirmatrelvir and 10 tablets of ritonavir 100 mg.

A fully owned subsidiary of Biophore India Pharmaceuticals, Zenara Pharma received the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) approval to manufacture and market these pills in August.

The ativiral pill, Paxlovid, manufactured by pharma giant Pfizer got a breakthrough approval by US FDA in December last year.

Zenara has said that Paxzen will be manufactured at its US FDA and EU approved state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad.

The Medicines Patent Pool, a UN-backed body, has tied up with 35 companies, including 19 drug manufacturers from India, to produce the generic version Paxlovid.

Paxlovid was found to reduce the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89 percent within three days of the onset of symptoms and 88 percent within five days of the first symptoms to placebos in mild to moderately high-risk COVID-19 patients in trial involving nearly 2,500 patients.

The drug was granted emergency-use authorisation by the US Food and Drugs Administration in December 2021 for those above 12 years of age.

Paxlovid consists of nirmatrelvir, which works by inhibiting a SARS-CoV-2 protein to stop the virus from replicating, and ritonavir, which slows down nirmatrelvir’s breakdown to help it remain in the body for a longer period at higher concentrations.