Hyderabad based, Avra Laboratories Pvt Ltd has been granted regulatory approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) to manufacture and market Favipiravir API, which will help patients suffering from COVID-19.
Avra Laboratories has developed an alternative low cost and highly efficient manufacturing process and is now supplying commercial quantities to Cipla for the launch of Ciplenza, the generic version of Favipiravir.
Dr. A V Rama Rao, Chairman, Avra Laboratories said, “I am very pleased to be working with Cipla and Dr Yusuf Hamied again with whom I share a five-decade long association and friendship, during which time we collaborated on several projects to produce lifesaving drugs including anti-cancer, anti-HIV/AIDS and several other generic products. The current pandemic has brought us together to work tirelessly for the speedy launch of Favipiravir”
Avra Laboratories was founded by Padma Bhushan – Dr A V Rama Rao, the former director of CSIR-IICT. He spent his entire academic career working with and nurturing the Indian pharmaceutical industry till his retirement in 1995. It was the efforts of Dr A V Rama Rao and his research group at CSIR-IICT that developed the anti-AIDS drugs for Cipla way back in the 1990’s which ultimately led to saving millions of lives. Dr A V Rama Rao is the only Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA) who after retirement from CSIR-IICT at the age of 60 went on to establish and build his company Avra Laboratories that has just completed 25 years providing research services and manufacturing complex pharmaceuticals.
