Drug to treat Covid early? Amid vaccines, Zydus Cadila pitches 'Pegihep' treatment to DCGI

Indian multinational drugmaker Zydus Cadila on Monday sought approval of the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) to use a Hepatitis C drug that it suggests can be used to treat Covid-19. Cadila stated that they have achieved "promising results from a late-stage trial." 

A single dose of this Hepatitis C drug works well on patients when taken in earlier stages of contraction. Patients recover faster while complications seen in the advanced stages of Covid can be avoided, Cadila said in a statement. “The treatment regimen would be less cumbersome and more affordable for patients as Pegylated Interferon Alpha 2b, is a single-dose regimen. It would also ensure better compliance,” PTI quoted the statement issued by Cadila requesting approval for its drug.

'91 percent patients treated with the Hepatitis C drug tested negative for coronavirus'

The company citing Phase-III clinical trial data also said that by day seven, at least 91 percent of patients treated with the Hepatitis C drug tested negative for coronavirus in standard RT-PCR tests, compared to nearly 79 percent who were given the standard care. The drug is known as Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b and branded as 'PegiHep' by Cadila, was initially approved for liver ailments. “We are encouraged by the results of a phase-III study of Pegylated Interferon Alpha 2b which has confirmed the potential to reduce virus titers when given earlier in the disease,” said Cadila MD Sharvil Patel.

India records highest single-day spike in Covid cases 

The development comes amid the daily surge in Covid cases that India has witnessed in the past few weeks. The total tally of coronavirus cases in India till Sunday is 12,589,067 while 165,132 people have succumbed to the virus and 11,682,136 have recovered. Moreover, India breached the 100,000 caseload mark on Sunday for the first time since the pandemic outbreak. Close to 80 million vaccine doses have been administered to date, but numbers show that vaccination for a population of over 1.3 billion is a challenging task for the health infrastructure and the government of India.