(Image source from: nationalheraldindia.com)

Coronavirus pandemic has infected over 9 million people across the world and claimed lives of over 470,000 people.

India has reported over 425,000 confirmed cases with over 13,000 deaths, the number increasing with every single day.

But, even with all this bad news covering the media, the one good thing that has come out of the situation is the fact that the Drug Controller General of India has given approval to three companies in India for the manufacturing of the Covid-19 treatment drugs.

The three medicines include:

• Cipla
• Glenmark
• Hetero

All three of these drugs have shown positive results in the individuals and is likely going to be put under further clinical trials and observation to get a better understanding.

If you are wondering about the characteristics of these three drugs, we have every last detail sorted out for you.

Cipremi

• Launched by Cipla, Cipremi is a remdesivir composition drug and is a lyophilized powder for injection of 100 mg
• The drug is going to be available in the hospitals by the government and even in the market channels
• The drug has specifically been approved for the adult and paediatric patients who are hospitalised because of Covid-19
• The efficacy of this drug has been touted beneficial for the patients on oxygen support
• The pricing for the drug has not be revealed by the company yet

FabiFlu

• The second drug and likely the most talked about of the three is the one from Glenmark named as FabiFlu
• The tablet has been priced at Rs. 3500 for 34 tablets
• The dosage of the drug is suggested as 200mg tablets 9 times on day one followed by 200 mg tablets 4 times for the next 14 days
• Some of the global trials of the drug has found that the administration of the drug improved the recovery by 88%
• The drug will be available in the hospitals and some of the retail channels in the coming days
• The active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and the formulation for FabiFlu has been developed by the in-house research and development team at Glenmark
• The drug has also been backed by solid clinical trial results, showing its efficacy in improved recovery in the patients showing mild symptoms
• The study for this drug included participants from 10 leading government and private hospitals in India
• It helps reduce the viral load in the patient in four days

Covifor

• Last but not the least is Covifor, which has been developed and approved for Hetero
• The drug is going to be available in 100 mg injectable form that has to be administered to the patients intravenously
• This doesn’t come in oral tablet forms and hence can’t be taken at home without doctor’s supervision
• The company has assured that their existing stock is enough to cater to the needs of the people in India as of now
• The company has further informed that each injection of Covifor would cost somewhere between Rs. 5000 to Rs. 6000
• The entire treatment cost with this drug won’t cost more than Rs. 30,000 as only 6 doses of the drug is necessary for recovery

It is necessary to know that every drug has been emergency approved and might not the final and only drug or treatment option for Covid. There is ongoing research for a vaccine along with other effective drugs and clinical trials to get a clearer picture of the situation.

By Somapika Dutta