Staff Reporter :
Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited (BPL) has started marketing Covid-19 antiviral pill “molnupiravir” in the country.
BPL is supplying the drug with the brand name Emorivir at Tk 70 per capsule.
A patient needs to take eight 200 mg capsules daily- four at a time, two times a day- for five days following a doctor’s prescription to treat mild to moderate infections. Trial research has suggested that the pill is likely to be most effective when taken during the early stages of infection.
Rizvi Ul Kabir, Director (Marketing) of BPL, told the media that molnupiravir capsules have been made available in the capital since Monday and in various divisional cities and district towns of the country from Tuesday.
“Earlier, we submitted samples of 1,600 boxes of molnupiravir capsules in accordance with the guidelines of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA). The drug was approved after testing samples in the DGDA’s drug testing lab. After that we have started marketing the it.
Eskayef and Square Pharmaceuticals, who received nods for the production and marketing of the drug from the DGDA, will begin marketing the pill within the next week, reports bdnews24.com.
Eskayef and Square Pharmaceuticals, who received nods for the production and marketing of the drug, will begin marketing the pill within the next week.
Eskayef has priced its pills, Monuvir, at Tk 50 each.
Incepta, General Pharma, Beacon Pharma, Renata and three other companies have also received the production go-ahead from the DGDA.
“We think the drug will help eliminate coronavirus from the country,” said Mahbubur, the chief of DGDA.
Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies were able to swiftly bring in the medicine due to having rights to “copyright exemption” on some drugs as a “developing country”, Mahbubur said.
Meanwhile, the DGDA has permitted BPL, a leading manufacturer of pharmaceutical formulations and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in Bangladesh, to produce a generic version of the Covid-19 antiviral pill jointly developed by U.S.-based Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
Besides Beximco, Square, Eskayef, Incepta, General Pharma, Beacon Pharma, Renata and three other companies have applied to the DGDA for the production go-ahead.
“Beximco was given the emergency authorisation on Monday. Some more companies will get the authorisation. The process is ongoing,” said Md Ayub Hossain, a director at the DGDA.
The DGDA authorised the production of the drug because “it wants Bangladesh to be free from Covid-19”, said Ayub. “The sooner we bring the drug, the better it will be for us. That’s why we have initiated the efforts [to produce the drug].”
The companies will first submit generic versions of the drug to the DGDA for review. If everything is alright, the DGDA will give the go-ahead for mass production and marketing of the products.
Britain on Thursday became the first country in the world to approve the potentially game-changing Covid-19 antiviral pill in a boost to the fight against the pandemic.
