Dr Reddy's launches innovator brand of favipiravir 'Avigan' at Rs 99 per tablet

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd launched the innovator brand of favipiravir ‘Avigan’ at Rs 99 (US$ 1.40) per tablet, a premium compared to existing generic brands already in the market.

“This launch is part of Dr Reddy’s pact with the drug’s Japan-based innovator firm Fujifilm, under which the Hyderabad-based drug maker has the rights to manufacture, sell and distribute Avigan tablets in India as well as export it to all countries globally, barring Japan, China and Russia”, said Mr M V Ramana, chief executive officer for branded markets (India and emerging markets).

The company plans to import the drug from FujiFilm for now, and in about three months, it would start manufacturing its own product through a technology transfer, the company said. Dr Reddy’s has plans to export the drug to other countries.

The price of ‘Avigan’ are kept at a 32 per cent premium as compared to the most expensive brand of favipiravir, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd’s ‘FabiFlu’, which costs Rs 75 (US$ 1.06) per pill. Glenmark’s ‘FabiFlu’ was the first favipiravir brand launched in India.

It is seen that an entire course of favipiravir consists of 122 tablets of 200 mg each over two weeks. Thus, Dr Reddy’s ‘Avigan’ is expected to price a little over Rs 12,000 (US$ 170.23) per course.

While the cheapest favipiravir brand is Sun Pharmaceutical Ltd’s ‘FluGuard’, which costs Rs 4,270 (US$ 60.57) for an entire course, or Rs 35 (US$ 0.49) per tablet.

According to Dr Reddy’s, shelf life is longer in case of the innovator brand of two years as compared to just three months for some of the generic drugs.

Earlier, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said that the shelf life of product was about three months when it was launched as early launch had shortened the period for stability testing but now FabiFlu’s shelf life is over a year.

There is also 700 patient randomised control trial conducted by Dr Reddy in Kuwait to test for the efficacy of the drug in treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

Favipiravir has received emergency use authorisations for the drug to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in several countries like India, Japan and Russia, the regulatory move was based on a large observational study in Japan of around 2,000 patients and several small randomised control studies, including a 150-patient phase-III trial by Glenmark.

Though, many experts have criticised this as there is not enough evidence to support the use of favipiravir, especially as many studies showed that while the drug was able to reduce the time for treatment, it was not able to clear viral load as effectively.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.