A brain-storming of scientists on the New Year followed by a meeting with Cipla’s chairman Y.K. Hamied led to CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) to commence weeks of round-the-clock research for developing the affordable version of Favipiravir drug to treat COVID-19, said CSIR-IICT director S. Chandrasekhar on Thursday.
“When the pandemic broke out, my first thought was to look for possible methods to introduce a drug at the earliest. But, soon a realisation dawned that a new drug will take at least eight to 10 years and millions of dollars of investment, which means no instant solutions were available,” he explained, giving an overview of how the premier institute in the city went about developing the indigenous version of the drug.
The concept of ‘repurposing of drugs’ (using drugs made for some neglected diseases for other diseases) took shape during the annual New Year meeting with his research group and senior colleagues Dr. Raji Reddy and Dr. Prathama, when COVID was yet to be declared a pandemic. This happened along with a meeting with Dr. Hamied and the Cipla team, on his invitation at Mumbai, where discussions on collaborative projects led to the team up between both the organisations, he said.
IICT scientists went about scouring scientific literature for “some known anti-viral drugs” prescribed by doctors to save lives.
Drug molecules Remdesivir, Favipiravir and Umifenovir, working on diseases closely related to SARS, were screened for their efficacy against coronavirus. The search was narrowed down further to the old Japanese off-patent antiviral drug Favipiravir, structurally looking like a twin brother of pyrazinamide (anti-TB drug) and Remdevisir, a clinical molecule of Gilead firm.
“We considered Favipiravir first for a quick solution,” recalled Dr. Chandrasekhar. But, then countrywide lockdown and global supply chain disruption threw different kind of challenges of mobility and materials.
A select batch of scientists and research students were chosen to stay back in the hostel and guest house for uninterrupted lab activity. “We had to develop raw materials sourced from Indian companies and through an elaborate process, we could identify the chemical available locally,” he added.
Once the molecule was ready, Cipla top managers Manjinder Singh and Sharadd Jain drove all the way by car from Mumbai for 15 hours, with packed food and water, as hotels were shut, taking special permissions during the lockdown to reach IICT to pick up the formulation so as to hasten the process of regulatory approvals.
“We could complete the entire Favipiravir process in a record four weeks for Cipla, thanks to the support extended by CSIR DG Shekhar C. Mande,” the director said. Indigenous chemicals sourced from Indian companies and bringing down the import dependency helped an affordable version of the drug being made available to the country, Dr. Chandrasekhar said.
