Black Fungus: Five more pharmas to produce anti-fungal drug as India stares at a new crisis

Amid surge in cases of mucormycosis or black fungus in the country, the Centre has allowed five companies to manufacture anti-fungal drug Amphotericin B, which is critical in the treatment of the deadly fungal infection.

“Five more pharma companies have got new drug approval for the production of Amphotericin-B within three days. Before that, only six firms were manufacturing the antifungal drug the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers said in a statement.

The five companies that received DCGI’s approval for drug production are Natco Pharma, Gufic Biosciences, Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Emcure Pharmaceuticals and Lyca Pharmaceuticals. Currently, six firms are manufacturing the antifungal drug. These includeMylan, Bharat Serums and Vaccines, BDR Pharma, Sun Pharma, Cipla and Life Care.

Black Fungus (Mucormycosis) curing drug #AmphotericinB ‘s shortage will be resolved soon!

Within three days, 5 more Pharma companies have got New Drug Approval for producing it in India, in addition to the existing 6 pharma companies. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/hm9KiZgxr4

— Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) May 20, 2021

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also warned against “the new challenge of black fungus” and urged people to take precaution and preparation to deal with it.

“In recent days we have a new challenge of Black Fungus. It is important to prepare systems to tackle it,” the prime minister said during an interaction with frontline workers from his constituency Varanasi on Friday. He also called for collective effort for the vaccination against the Covid-19.

Also Read: Covid-19: Home testing kit ‘Coviself’ gets ICMR’s nod | 10 things to know

Black fungus is caused by organisms called mucormycetes, which can enter the body through breathing or skin injuries. These are naturally present in soil and decaying organic matter, but once inside humans, they can infect air pockets behind the forehead, nose, cheekbones and between the eyes and teeth. The covid-triggerd infection is rising in India. So far, over 7,000 people have been infected with the disease and over 200 have lost their lives. The Centre on Thursday asked the states to declare it a notified disease. Telangana, Odisha, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Haryana have already declared black fungus as a notified disease.