Lloyd Laboratories, the first company to locally manufacture an oral therapy for patients with the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is also planning to produce in the country the vaccine against the virus.
Both projects are seen securing the country’s supply of the needed response to the health crisis, according to the Board of Investments (BOI) which has granted Lloyd registration for the Molnupiravir production.
Christopher Bamba, business development director of Lloyd, in a briefing said the company is all set to mass produce Molnupiravir as soon as it is granted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) its emergency use authorization (EUA).
Bamba said this would give Filipinos, through medical and other institutions, access to the drug at half the price of those imported as local production eliminates other costs.
Bamba added the company’s facilities in Malolos, Bulacan can produce a million tablets of 200 milligram and 400 mg per batch.
Based on Bamba’s computation, the country needs 3.6 million Molnupiravir to treat just 20 percent of the active positive cases as of Tuesday.
With a compassionate special permit (CSP) obtained and later converted to an application for EUA, Lloyd has started the manufacture of Molnupiravir and delivered 600 tablets to Recuenco General Hospital out of the 10,000 it has been granted approval.
Ceferino Rodolfo, BOI managing head, said the agency has been encouraging local production rather than importation to give the country “security and guaranteed availability especially for a global pandemic or any endemic.”
“For some companies’ point of view , it is easier to import on the regulatory and operations side as this would require much less investment and the risk is less,” Rodolfo said.
But he stressed the importance of the Philippines having its own manufacturing capability for critical medicines.
“As we have seen, other countries can just impose export ban. At BOI, DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), we are helping those who have the courage and the vision and commitment to go into manufacturing,” Rodolfo said.
Antonio Ligsay, Lloyd medical consultant, said the company is participating in the phase 3 trial of a recombinant vaccine for COVID called V01 by Chinese conglomerate Livzon Biotech through Livzon Mabpharm.
According to Ligsay, the Philippines had the most number of subjects of 12,000 out of the 21,500 subjects in the clinical trial.
He said the interim analysis should be out at the end of the month.
Ligsay said Lloyd applied for the EUA for V01 which is fast to manufacture.
He said Lloyd can manufacture as many as a billion doses in just a short time.
Lloyd is also the first and only company that has obtained FDA approval to manufacture Ivermectin for human use.
Lloyd Laboratories acquired a direct technology transfer on Molnupiravir production from Optimus Pharma, an integrated pharmaceutical organization in Hyderabad. – Irma Isip
