Suven Pharmaceuticals, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and CSIR-National Institute of Interdisciplinary Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram have agreed to 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 synthetic process know-how for Molnupiravir was sourced from CSIR-NIIST and the scale-up process was successfully carried out by CSIR-IICT. The complete technology know-how will be transferred and Suven 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 would also 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.