Russia's RDIF backs ChemRar for the production of favipiravir against COVID-19

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia's sovereign wealth fund specializing in equity investments in the high-tech sector, together with the local drugmaker ChemRar Group, will start the production of a new drug designed for treatment of COVID-19, according to the companies, reports The Pharma Letter’s local correspondent.

This will be an analogue of the drug favipiravir, trade name Avigan, which was initially developed by Fujifilm Holdings (TYO: 4901) and was approved for the treatment of influenza in Japan in 2015.

On March 17 this year, Zhang Xinmin, head of China’s National Center for Biotechnology Development, told the media of favipiravir’s effectiveness against coronavirus, as seen in clinical studies held in Wuhan and Shenzhen. Patients treated with favipiravir tested negative for coronavirus in four days, whereas for those not receiving the drug it took 11 days to do so. Dr Zhang updated reporters that in 91% of the treated group the conditions of their lungs improved, compared with 62% of those in the control group.