The Elusive Miracle Drug
Rudra Govind runs a pharmacy in Delhi’s Shahdara. He remembers the rush for hydroxychloroquine in April when the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) announced it as a possible prophylactic—his stock sold out within two days. Predictably, there is a similar surge in demand for two new Covid drugs—Favipiravir and Remdesivir—as they enter the market.
Since news broke on June 21 that pharmaceutical company Glenmark’s Favipiravir formulation FabiFlu had been cleared by the DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) for ‘restricted emergency use’ in ‘mild to moderate cases’, Govind has received daily enquiries about the medicine. It didn’t seem to matter that Favipiravir, like Remdesivir before it, was not a
