ITAR-TASS: Biochemist is ready to produce up to 1 million packages of Areplivir per month.

Production

Medicines

26.06.2020

The leading Russian media today came out with the news about the approval by the Ministry of Health of a drug developed by Promomed specialists at the production site of JSC Biochemist, effective in the treatment of COVID-19. That's what the TASS news agency writes about it.

June 25th. The Biochemist plant (part of the Promomed group of companies) in Mordovia is ready to produce up to 1 million packages of the domestic drug Areplivir per month for the treatment of coronavirus infection, the executive director of Biochemist JSC told TASS on Friday Dmitry Zemskov.

Earlier, information was published on the website of the state register of medicines that the domestic drug Areplivir Promomed, which is an analogue of Favipiravir, a drug invented in Japan and used to treat a new coronavirus infection, has received approval from the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. The drug is produced at the facilities of the Biochemist plant.

"We will increase the volume of production. Our technical capabilities allow us to produce up to 1 million packages per month. This is enough to close Russia's need for a drug during the first wave [of coronavirus infection]. There are export requests, but first of all we will provide the drug to our domestic Russian market for the health and safety of citizens," Dmitry Zemskov said.

According to him, the drug is based on the active substance Favipiravir, which was used in the treatment of rare forms of viral infections, in particular Ebola, in the treatment of complex forms of influenza, as well as during the epidemic of the new coronavirus infection in China. Areplivir blocks the reproduction of the virus in the human cell, thereby

preventing the spread of infection in the body. The drug is effective against RNA viruses, which include the COVID-19 coronavirus. When using the drug, the duration of infection in the body is significantly reduced — up to almost 4 days.

The Biochemist plant was founded in 1959 in Saransk. During the Soviet years, the first penicillin antibiotics were produced here, as well as products for further drug synthesis. Currently, the plant produces antibiotics of various groups, including drugs of the penicillin, cephalosporin and carbapenem series, aminoglycosides.

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