TOKYO, April 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaneka Corporation (President: Minoru Tanaka) has reached an agreement with FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) to supply drug substances for anti-influenza drug, Avigan Tablet (generic name: favipiravir), for the novel coronavirus disease (referred to below as COVID-19).
While COVID-19 continues to spread, the Japanese government has decided to increase its stockpiles of Avigan Tablet, which is expected to be effective against COVID-19, for up to 2 million people, and FUJIFILM Corporation has expanded its production system and started increasing its production of Avigan Tablet.
We have been highly commended by major pharmaceutical manufacturers around the world for our process development capabilities, manufacturing technology, and quality of pharmaceuticals cultivated over many years, and on this occasion, we have been requested to supply drug substances as a major supplier. We believe that it is our social mission to promptly start the supply of drug substances for Avigan Tablet, and we will urgently improve our manufacturing system through capital investment, personnel allocation changes, and production plan adjustments to begin supplying the drug substances in July.
We have already started supplying PCR reagents used for COVID-19 tests via our group company Kaneka Eurogentec (Headquarters: Belgium). In addition, we are enhancing our contracted manufacturing efforts for a COVID-19 vaccine using technologies such as high-quality mRNA and plasmid DNA and are handling an onrush of inquiries.
Kaneka will put in every effort to provide solutions to the COVID-19 for worldwide health.
Contact: Kazuhiko Fujii, kazuhiko.fujii@kaneka.co.jp
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