Japan's government has given up on approving Fujifilm Holdings Corp's Avigan drug for the treatment of COVID-19 by the end of May, Kyodo News reported late on Monday citing a government official.
TOKYO - Japan’s government has given up on approving Fujifilm Holdings Corp’s Avigan drug for the treatment of COVID-19 by the end of May, Kyodo News reported late on Monday citing a government official.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said earlier this month he hoped the drug would be approved some time in May if its efficacy and safety could be confirmed. Researchers at Fujita Health University, which is conducting a clinical trial on the drug, said in a statement the interim study was done to ensure the scientific validity of the trial, not to determine the efficacy of the drug.
Interest in Avigan, known generically as favipiravir, soared in March after a Chinese official said it appeared to help patients recover from COVID-19, the potentially fatal respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. The drug is now the subject of at least 16 clinical trials around the world.Japan’s government has called on Fujifilm to triple national stockpiles of the drug, approved in 2014 as an emergency flu treatment, and pledged to donate it to countries upon request.
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