Amid the shortage of medicines and vaccines in the country that is needed to effectively tackle a devastating second wave of the pandemic, India’s Zydus Cadila seeks regulatory approval for clinical trials of its antibody cocktail to treat mild coronavirus.
The ZRC-3308 treatment candidate was earlier shown to decrease lung damage during animal trials, the drug producer informed that it was found to be safe and well-tolerated.
Moreover, it was found that the therapy is a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies that imitate natural antibodies and prepares the body generates to fight infection
In a stock exchange filing, Zydus Cadila’s managing director Sharvil Patel said, “At this juncture, there is a critical need to explore safer and more efficacious treatments to combat Covid.”
Zydus said, the company is seeking permission to conduct early-to-late-stage human clinical trials from the Drugs Controller General of India.
However, emergency use authorisations to parallel treatments developed by Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline as well as ones made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly has been given by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Moreover, antibody cocktails prepared by Regeneron and Roche has also been given emergency use approval in India that will be distributed by the drug manufacturer Cipla. Earlier this week, the first batch of the cocktail became available in the country.
India’s total coronavirus infections crossed 27 million on Wednesday, with 208,921 new cases being recorded over the prior 24 hours, while daily deaths from Covid-19 rose by 4,157.