HYDERABAD: Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Celon Laboratories on Monday announced the launch of Amphotericin B Emulsion, an alternative drug for the treatment of mucormycosis, commonly known as black fungus infection. In a press release issued here, the company said it will manufacture enough emulsion to treat 6,000 patients per month. Due to a sharp spike in number of mucormycosis cases among the Covid- infected persons in the country, the demand for Liposomal Amphotericin B used to treat the fungal infection has increased manifold, resulting in acute shortage of the injection.
The Celon Laboratories said that though it has been manufacturing Liposomal Amphotericin B since 2013, the present demand could not be met due to the unavailability of lipoid, a critical ingredient used in making the drug that is imported from Germany.
“To bypass the bottleneck caused by this sourcing obstacle and increase production of this medication, Celon developed an alternative, an emulsion-based formulation”, the press release added.
“Exhaustively developed by Celon’s in-house R&D team in a record three weeks, the emulsion-based formulation will provide leading hospitals and Covid-19 treatment centres with increased resources to treat the black fungus patients. Celon will manufacture 10,000 vials per day, which will ensure relief for approximately 6,000 patients per month,” it said. Celon Laboratories’ Managing Director M Nagesh Kumar, said: “The company will start supplying the drug to the domestic market soon.”