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Drug firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Monday said it has cut the price of its antiviral drug Favipiravir, under the brand name FabiFlu, for the treatment of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, by 27 per cent to Rs 75 per tablet. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals had launched FabiFlu last month at a price of Rs 103 per tablet.
In a regulatory filing, Glenmark announced a price reduction of 27 per cent for FabiFlu. The new maximum retail price (MRP) is Rs 75 per tab, it said.
‘The price reduction has been made possible through benefits gained from higher yields and better scale, as both the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and formulations are made at Glenmark’s facilities in India, the benefits of which are being passed on to patients in the country,’ the filing said.
‘Our internal research shows us that we launched FabiFlu in India at the lowest market cost as compared to the cost of Favipiravir in other countries where it is approved. And now we hope that this further price reduction will make it even more accessible for patients across the country,’ Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Senior Vice President and Head – India business Alok Malik said.
Further, the company has commenced post-marketing surveillance (PMS) study on FabiFlu to closely monitor the efficacy and safety of the drug in 1,000 patients that are prescribed with the oral antiviral, as part of an open-label, multicenter, single-arm study, the filing added.
‘We expect this post-marketing surveillance study to shed more light on the drug’s clinical effectiveness and safety in a large cohort of patients prescribed FabiFlu,’ Malik added.
