CJMYThe Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, and ChemRar Group will supply Avifavir, Russia’s first drug approved for COVID-19 treatment, to 17 countries.
Avifavir which is a favipiravir-based drug developed in Japan, gained approval from Russia’s Ministry of Health in May.
Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said, “When we registered the first anti-coronavirus drug in the world based on favipiravir there was a lot of skepticism as people were wondering how we could register it when Japan had not registered it yet. Now five months after our clinical trials we see that Japan has confirmed the clinical efficacy of favipiravir. Avifavirhas been tested in more than 1,300 patients including 408 patients in clinical trials and 940 patients during the observational post-registration clinical trial.”
“We havenow conducted the largest clinical trial of a favipiravir-based drug against coronavirus in the world and can confirm its high efficacy. Since June, more than 60,000 packages of Avifavir have been delivered to clinics in 74 Russian regions and more than 15 countries have confirmed their interest in the drug. Based on our extensive clinical trials and the research in Japan confirming favipiravir’s efficacy against coronavirus we believe that Avifavir and other favipiravir-based products will be the leading antiviral medicines against COVID-19 in the world. In addition to proven efficacy and safety Avifavir is also three to four times cheaper than Remdesivir.”
According to its Phase III clinical trial results announced in September, 156 patients administered with the drug demonstrated shorter time to resolution compared to a placebo group.
Patients taking Avifavir demonstrated elimination of the virus at an earlier stage in 30% of the cases with no new adverse events identified. Their level of oxygen saturation was restored to normal within two days compared to four days with standard therapy.
Avifavir has been approved by regulators in Europe, Middle East and Asia and is now the leading Russian anti-COVID drug in terms of exports. The drug has already been delivered to Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
It will now be sent to Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Kuwait, Panama, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia,South Africa, UAE and Uruguay.
Russia is pushing hard to take a global lead in the race against the coronavirus and its already exporting its COVID-19 tests and has clinched several international deals for supplies of its Sputnik-V vaccine.
Last week Russia approved R-Pharm’s Coronavir treatment for outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections. The antiviral drug could be rolled out to pharmacies in the country as soon as this week.
Avifavir, as well as Remdesivir developed in the US are drugs currently the leading globally against COVID-19.
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