Fujifilm cranks up testing and production of COVID-19 candidate Avigan

Fujifilm Toyama Chemical says it has initiated a Phase III clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of influenza antiviral drug Avigan (favipiravir) in Japan for patients of COVID-19, a respiratory infection caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).

Following the rapid and global outbreak of COVID-19, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the Coronavirus had become a global pandemic. As the number of COVID-19 patients continues to increase around the world, the development of effective treatments is urgently required.

Interest in Avigan came into the spotlight last month, when Zhang Xinmin, from China’s Science and Technology Ministry, said the drug had “a high degree of safety,” and that it was “clearly effective in treatment” of the novel coronavirus.

Avigan, approved since 2014 for manufacture and sale as an influenza antiviral drug in Japan, has a mechanism of action for selectively inhibiting RNA polymerase involved in influenza viral replication. Due to this mechanism, it is expected that Avigan may potentially have an antiviral effect on the new coronavirus as it is classified into the same type of single-stranded RNA virus as influenza, and its clinical application to treat COVID-19 is now under study.