Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd., (SPL), CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and CSIR-National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram have entered into an agreement for the process technology transfer and manufacturing of the anti COVID drug, Molnupiravir and 2-DG. It is a related party transaction as one of our Independent Directors Dr S Chandrasekhar is the Director of CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad.

The agreements between the parties involve a total fee of Rs 8 lakh plus taxes for the grant of the licenses on non-exclusive basis to SPL. Molnupiravir, the antiviral drug was initially developed for the treatment of influenza and is repurposed to completely suppress the COVID virus transmission within 24 hours according to the study recently published in the journal Nature Microbiology. The drug could be a game changer in mitigation of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The synthetic process know how for Molnupiravir was sourced from CSIR-NIIST and scale up process was successfully carried out by CSIR-IICT. The complete technology know how will be transferred and SPL in turn will manufacture and launch in the domestic market as an effective medication for COVID infected patients subject to regulatory approvals. As per the agreement, CSIR IICT also would provide the process know how for the manufacture of new anti COVID drug 2-DG to treat moderately and severely COVID infected patients to reduce their oxygen dependency.