Vopec Pharmaceuticals announces completion of COVID-19 clinical trials of herbal formulations

Vopec Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd today announced it has completed one of India's first COVID-19 clinical trials on a herbal, Siddha formulation, Amrta Karuna. The clinical trial has been registered with the Indian Council for Medical Research(ICMR). 

Vopec began human clinical trials of Amrta Karuna in June in conjunction with Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) on COVID-19 patients. 

Notable results for the Amrta Karuna treatment group compared to the control showed  significant reduction in hospital quarantine: 5.8 vs 8.1 days which was a 28 per cent decrease.

RT-PCR showed negative on day 7 at 71.42 per cent vs 42.85 per cent, sgnificantly reduced CRP inflammatory levels and significantly reduced LDH tissue damage levels and TLC (immune system strength) within normal range on day 14.

Dr CR Jayanthi, Principal Investigator and Dean of BMCRI, said, "This clearly indicates Amrta Karuna syrup proved to favourably influence the immune system in quarantined COVID-19 subjects as compared to the control subjects." 

Based on the silico models, Dr Dinesh, Research head at Vopec said the phytoconstituents in Amrta Karuna act on ACE2-Spike interaction, inhibiting the entry of the virus into host cell, and on NSP15 protein to prevent its replication. 

Pre-clinical in vitro studies demonstrated the safety and efficacy of Amrta Karuna and confirmed its potential as an immunomodulatory agent against Dengue, H1N1 and H5N1 viruses. 

Dr. Baskaran Pillai, chairman of Vopec said: "Herbal formulations have scalability and other issues. So Vopec currently has a small molecule under research to circumvent these problems. We invite pharmaceuticals, hospitals and researchers to partner with us in our fight against the pandemic." 

Vopec recently licensed Amrta Karuna to US-based Nambu Botanicals.