BENGALURU: Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd said on Tuesday it will begin a new clinical trial in India to test a combination of two anti-viral drugs, favipiravir and umifenovir, as a potential COVID-19 treatment.
The study will look to enroll 158 hospitalized patients suffering from moderate COVID-19 infections in India, the company said.
Drugmakers across the world have been rushing to develop a treatment or vaccine for the fast-spreading coronavirus, which has infected 5.5 million people globally, killing more than 345,000, according to a Reuters tally.
In India, now among the 10 most affected nations, the death toll from COVID-19 reached 4,167 on Tuesday.
Favipiravir is made under the brand name Avigan by Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp and was approved for use as an anti-flu drug there in 2014, while umifenovir is licensed as a treatment of some types of flu infections in Russia and China.
Glenmark is already conducting clinical trials in India of just favipiravir as a potential treatment for COVID-19, for which it expects results by July or August. Favipiravir is also undergoing trials in other countries.
