Pharma company Hetero has entered into a non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreement with MSD for the manufacturing and distribution of investigational oral therapeutic antiviral drug ‘Molnupiravir’ for the treatment of Covid-19.

Under the deal, Hetero will be allowed to expand access of Molnupiravir in India and in other low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), following the approvals for emergency use authorisation by local regulatory agencies.

Molnupiravir is an investigational oral antiviral agent currently being studied in a Phase-3 trial for the treatment of non-hospitalised patients with confirmed Covid-19.

MSD is developing Molnupiravir in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.

“Hetero has partnered with MSD to enable access of Molnupiravir for Covid-19 to the Indian population at this much important time to fight the pandemic,” B Partha Saradhi Reddy, Chairman, Hetero Group of Companies, said in a release.

“We are vertically integrated to manufacture and commercially ready to supply this product to patients swiftly across the country. We will be immediately approaching the DCGI to seek regulatory pathway and emergency use authorisation,”' he added.

Molnupiravir will be manufactured in Hetero’s formulation facility in Hyderabad which has been approved by stringent global regulatory authorities such as USFDA and EU, among others.

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