Russian COVID-19 Therapeutic Coronavir to Hit Pharmacy Shelves in Coming Days

Coronavir, a treatment developed by Russian company R-Pharm for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections, is slated to be offered in pharmacies in that country as early as this week.

R-Pharm said it had gained regulatory approval for Coronavir after phase 3 clinical trials involving 168 patients with COVID-19 showed favorable results. The drug was first approved in July for use in hospitals to treat COVID-19.

Coronavir’s approval as a prescription drug available to Russian consumers comes on the heels of the country’s May approval of  Avifavir to treat COVID-19. That drug has been in use in hospitals since June but has yet to be offered in pharmacies.

Both Coronavir and Avifavir are based on favipiravir, an RNA polymerase inhibitor developed in Japan and approved there in 2014 as an emergency treatment for flu. Favipiravir is also the key ingredient in FujiFilm’s COVID-19 drug candidate Avigan.

Favipiravir went off patent in 2019 and is produced for use against COVID-19 in India by Indian generic drug companies Lupin, Cipla and Dr Reddy’s.

In August, Russia was the first country to approve a vaccine for COVID-19, Sputnik V, upsetting the global scientific community when it did so without conducting large-scale phase 3 trials (DID, Aug. 12). — Suz Redfearn