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Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited on Tuesday announced the launch of an innovative antifungal drug, Super Bioavailable Itraconazole-SB 100mg under the brand name - Itaspor-SB Forte/Subawin.
The drug will substantially reduce the cost of the therapy for fungal infection, also is expected to improve patient compliance and reduce the Doctor’s counselling time. It will reduce dosing to half, Intas said in an announcement. However the company did not clarify on the pricing of the product.
Itaspor-SB Forte/Subawin was recently approved by Indian regulator Drug Controller General of India (DCGI).
"Conventional Itraconazole mainstay drug to fight fungal infection has high result variance and low patient compliance because of dosing dependence upon food, acidic beverage, antacids consumption etc. and overall cost of treatment," the company said claiming Itaspor-SB Forte/Subawin to be the world's first drug for the therapy.
Furthermore, patients can take it with or without a meal with just water or as directed by the physician, a statement said.
As per published literature and clinicians' experience, the Itraconazole molecule has low blood drug concentration, affecting safety and efficacy when taken orally. These blood levels highly vary from patient to patient.
Moreover, the recommendation to take it with a full fatty meal and an acidic beverage further reduces patient compliance and adds to the problem of desired blood drug concentration.
Another factor is the cost of therapy for fungal infection patients, as treatment duration varies from 3 to 8 weeks.
"Intas’ newest formulation within the 25 year old brand Itaspor is formulated with Super Bioavailable (SB) Technology that makes 1 Itaspor-SB Forte capsule equivalent to conventional 200mg Itraconazole," said Alok Chaturvedi, Senior Vice-president & Head - Medical Affairs, Intas Pharmaceuticals.
Ahmedabad-based Intas Pharmaceuticals has capabilities of formulation development, manufacturing and marketing along with backward integration of APIs.
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