COVID-19 Impact on Favipiravir in Pharmaceutical Industry
OVERVIEW
A novel corona virus, SARS-CoV-2, appeared in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, spreading much faster than its predecessors and the virus has already infected millions of patients worldwide as of April 19, 2020. As the scope of the current COVID-19 outbreak has reached proportion of pandemics, major international efforts in public health are underway to control the outbreak. However, as definitive treatments for confirmed COVID-19 are yet to be identified, there is considerable interest in repeating existing antiviral drugs for use against COVID-19.
Favipiravir triphosphate is a purine nucleoside analogue. This acts as a competitive inhibitor of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. It has activities against influenza A and B, including oseltamivir- and zanamivir-resistant influenza viruses, several antimicrobial antiviral drugs, such as SARS-CoV-2. Favipiravir is approved for influenza strains that do not respond to standard antiviral therapy in Japan.
IMPACT ON PRICE
A large number of challenges are being faced by various market players due to the coming of the novel coronavirus, one such issue is the uncertainty surrounding the impact of covid-19 on favipiravir demands. Due to the increased demand of favipiravir for coronavirus treatment and stiff competition between the market players the rice of favipiravir has decreased. Read more...