The global pandemic of COVID-19 has changed the focus towards epidemic prevention and control of the infection in all areas of the world. The WHO is sparing no effort to call all nations to strengthen unity and cooperation to fight the epidemic disease spread. The scientific world has been searching for weeks for a coronavirus vaccine, while continuing investigations on how to treat patients. This global approach has significantly accelerated the development of therapeutic drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 infection, targeting to improve the cure rate and to reduce the death toll as top priority.
Zhejiang HISUN Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is one of the leading pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in China. During clinic trials in the early phase of the epidemic outbreak in China, HISUN’s OSD drug FAVIPIRAVIR has shown positive effects in treatments of patients and good clinical efficacy with no significant side effects. The antiviral agent FAVIPIRAVIR, originally developed for flu treatment, has been approved for manufacturing and marketing in Japan in March 2014 under the tradename AVIGAN already. The clinical trials in Shenzhen and Wuhan have shown that FAVIPIRAVIR can help to shorten the recovery time for mild and middle severe COVID-19 infection cases. Furthermore, a positive effect of shortening the fever duration of infected patients has been observed. The Chinese Food and Drug Administration CFDA has officially approved FAVIPIRAVIR on February 15, 2020. As the first drug with potential efficacy in the treatment of against COVID-19 approved by the CFDA during the epidemic outbreak, the drug is recommended for guided treatment programs in China. Even if not formally approved by health authorities in Europe or the US, and in the absence of an effective and widely used vaccine to treat COVID-19 anywhere in the world, also countries such as Italy have decided to approve the use of the drug.
Amid the epidemic situation, the setup of the mass production has become a race against the clock after the formal CFDA approval. With time to market being of the essence, HISUN together with the involved authorities have initiated common steered efforts, in order to ensure the production of FAVIPIRAVIR with the required quality and safety of the drug. A unique and elite taskforce consisting of local market supervision Authorities, GMP inspectors and HISUN experts has been formed to track and supervise the whole process of the first FAVIPIRAVIR tablet batch production from the raw materials to the finished drug.
Packing line of Favipiravir in the Hisun Pharmaceutical plant
The taskforce team has worked around the clock to guide the standard production of the drug. Hisun Pharmaceutical Experts have worked closely together with the drug supervisors 24/7, while still multiple challenges have had to overcome, such as epidemic control related traffic control limitation and staff shortage. After initial production start on February 16, the first 22 transport cartons of FAVIPIRAVIR have been finished on February 18, designated for hospitals in Wuhan and contributing to the treatment of COVID-19 in the Chinese epicenter of the epidemic outbreak.
According to Li Yue, Head of the Medical Science Department and General Manager, Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical has provided drug support to many countries after the worldwide pandemic infection spread, coordinated by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the China State Council.
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