Vopec Pharma completes COVID-19 clinical trials of herbal formulation, Amrta Karuna

Vopec Pharmaceuticals has announced that it has completed COVID-19 clinical trials on a herbal, Siddha formulation, Amrta Karuna. The clinical trial is registered with the Indian Council for Medical Research.

The company 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 (28 per cent decrease)

• RT-PCR negative on day 7 at 71.42 per cent vs 42.85 per cent

• Significantly reduced CRP inflammatory levels (p=0.0236)

• Significantly reduced LDH tissue damage levels (p<.0001)

• TLC (immune system strength) within normal range on day 14

Dr CR Jayanthi, Principal Investigator and Dean of BMCRI, concludes, “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 in silico models Dr Dinesh, Research Head at Vopec says, “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. Confirmatory in vitro studies in the US are underway on the SARS-CoV-2 virus through Agastiya Biotech in California. Amrta Karuna’s mechanism is attributed to five anti-viral herbs from the 5000-year old Indian medicine system. Besides being anti-viral the five herbs also have strong immunomodulatory therapeutics.

Dr Baskaran Pillai, Chairman of Vopec says, “Herbal formulations have scalability and other issues. So Vopec currently has a small molecule under research to circumvent these problems. We invite pharma, hospitals and researchers to partner with us in our fight against the pandemic.”