Russia Set To Supply Three Anti-COVID Drugs To India
Mumbai, 28 July 2020:
Russia is set to supply three indigenously developed anti-COVID drugs including favipiravir, olokizumab and levilimab to India following positive results of the medicines in COVID-19 patients.
Russian drug industry is looking at opportunity to export these drugs to India. Russian Ministry of Health has reached out to the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) offering to supply the three anti-COVID drugs which are showing positive results in Russia to India.
Russia has indigenously developed a few drugs and registered a number of foreign drugs for treatment of COVID-19. Out of these drugs, it is looking to supply favipiravir (trade name Avifavir), olokizumab (trade name Artlegia), levilimab (trade name Ilsira) to India, stated Pharmexcil director general Uday Bhaskar.
Favipiravir is manufactured by Research Institute of Chemical Diversity, Russia. Indian drugmakers can contact Yuri Nikolaevich Krasnenkov (e-mail:ynk@iihr.ru) or Alexander Azarov (e-mail:aav@biointegrator.com) to import the drug.
Produced by R-Pharm, Russia, olokizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody that directly blocks the inflammatory mediator Interleukin-6 (IL-6). Importers can contact the drugmaker through e-mail (info@rpharm.ru).
Produced by Biocad, levilimab is deemed to be recommended for patients with the so-called ‘cytokine storm’. Indian drugmakers looking to import the drug can reach out to Dmitry Alekseevich Pasechnik, commercial director for international markets, Biocad through an email (pasechnik@biocad.ru).
Pharmexcil has appealed to its members having substantive commercial interest, to approach the contacts provided for each drug.
This is not the first time Russian drugmakers are supplying products to India. In 2017 one Russian medicinal product was exported to India – vaccine for prevention yellow fever from the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of Russian Academy of Sciences, then in 2018 Russia exported medicinal products, such as rituximabum and trastuzumabum manufactured by Biocad to India.
On the other hand, India exported pharmaceuticals and drug products worth US$ 535 million to Russia in fiscal 2019-2020, making it the second-largest drugs exporter to Russia behind Germany. A total of 790 types of drugs manufactured by 93 Indian drug companies including Dr Reddy’s, Sun Pharma, Sentiss and Shreya Life Sciences are sold in Russia, according to a report.
Russian drugmakers are also interested in the Indian market and are looking at opportunities to export in India. With the CDSCO fast tracking regulatory approval process for COVID-19 drugs, the importers of the drugs will be benefited from this, said Sahil Munjal, vice chairman, Pharmexcil.
Said a drug regulator, unlike favipiravir which is being manufactured by a number of Indian companies, the other two molecules--olokizumab, levilimab will be registered as new drugs in India. The importers need to furnish clinical study data in order to register the products in India. Pharmabiz