| Welfo Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a Kolkata-based company, plans to market a dihydroartemisinin derivate, by the name of Maligo in India within the next one month, to treat malaria.
|
| |
| The drug is considered a second-line treatment for malaria, and is useful when a patient develops immunity towards traditional anti-malaria drug like chloroquinine.
|
| |
| Dihydroartemisinin derivate forms are already in-use in India.
|
| |
| The drug is most effective in combination with piperaquine, an antimalarial drug registered already in China as artekin.
|
| |
| Nicholas White from the University of Oxford, a malaria expert, said here, “Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) are now the recommended treatment for malaria due to the growing resistance to widely-used drugs. However, despite their efficacy, limited patient compliance due to the high number of pills in addition to treatment cost and availability of treatment options still hamper its widespread use.”
|
| |
| A five-day course of dihydroartemisinin treatment of 10 pills sold by Welfo will cost up to Rs 600.
|
| |
| Commonly-used chloroquine is available in government hospitals for free.
|
| |
| According to Apurba Mukherjee, product manager of Welfo Pharmaceuticals, the company is eying a 20 per cent increase in turnover with the launch of Maligo in eastern India.
|
| |
| “We are a Rs 6 crore company, but we expect at least a 20 per cent growth in turnover with the launch of Maligo in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam , Jharkhand and parts of Maharashtra,” he said.
|
| |
| Clinical trials for the drug is yet to be completed in India, though it has been tested abroad.
|
| |
| Artemisinin is extracted from artemisia herb and was a traditional Chinese medicine.
|
| |
| Welfo will import the drug from South East Asian countries. |
| |
|
| |
Content Guide
