Hyderabad-based Zenara Pharma on August 5 announced that it has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to manufacture and sell Favipiravir tablets as a treatment option for patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.

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The tablet, which will be sold under the brand name 'Favizen', is being manufactured at Zenara's US FDA approved state-of-the-art facility in Hyderabad. Zenara Pharma, a fully-owned subsidiary of Biophore India Pharmaceuticals, is in talks with multiple state institutions and several hospitals in India to ensure that Favizen is readily available for the patients in need. "Given the ongoing pandemic, it has become extremely critical for pharmaceutical companies to quickly provide safe and effective treatment options to patients with COVID-19. I am proud to say that we have our own in-house API and are not dependent on any imports for production.

"We believe that this will ensure stability and rapid production and availability of this treatment for the Indian market. We are also in talks with various institutions to make the tablets available at discounted or no cost to underprivileged patients," said the Co-founder and Managing Director, Zenara Pharma.

The company said that it has the manufacturing and distribution capabilities to improve access to this treatment around the world and has already begun exports to the Middle East and Latin American countries. Favipiravir has demonstrated positive clinical outcomes in some trials and has already been approved for use to treat COVID-19 in Russia and parts of the Middle East. Advance stage trials are currently underway in several countries, including India.