The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) has approved requests from 61 local drug companies looking to manufacture Favipiravir to treat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The applications will allow the companies to start taking special administrative and technical procedures toward completing Favipiravir’s registration.

The authority confirmed that four companies have completed procedures for registration. The procedures were undertaken according to the exceptional registration mechanism for some preparations approved by the EDA.

The authority has also approved applications submitted by 27 Egyptian drug companies to start taking special administrative and technical measures towards completing the procedures for registering Remdesivir drug in Egypt.

So far, only one national company has obtained a notification of registration to start manufacturing Remdesivir at its factories from the EDA.

EDA Spokesperson Ali Al-Ghamrawi said that 61 applications were submitted by 61 drug companies to begin procedures for registering Favipiravir in 200 mg concentration tablets. Approval has also been given to 41 applications submitted by 28 companies to begin procedures for registering Remdesivir at three different concentrations.

Al-Ghamrawi added that these approvals come in light of the exceptional measures taken by the EDA to facilitate, localise and provide drugs for the coronavirus in Egypt.

He further elaborated that the authority has organisational and executive competencies in setting general policies governing Egypt’s drug industry, as well as developing plans and reviewing all regulations. This comes in addition to supervising and amending regulations to keep pace with quality and safety requirements for locally produced medicines.