Creating black fungus drug was risky, says Udupi's Srikanth Pai

MANGALURU: Liposomal Amphotericin B has saved thousands of lives by helping people fight mucormycosis or black fungal infection, which has taken on an epidemic proportion during the second Covid wave. One of the brains behind the wonder drug is Srikanth Annappa Pai, who hails from Gangolli in Udupi district.

Pai told TNIE that the US patent for the conventional drug expired in 2008 and Bharat Serums and Vaccines Ltd, where he headed the R&D team, had started working on it four years earlier. “It was risky as there were no guidelines for generic liposomal products. No one was sure whether it would be acceptable. Each step had to be careful,” he said.

“Compared to the conventional drug, which is a one-step product, this was a three-step product. There was no literature too on what precaution had to be taken. We had to experiment and then proceed,” he added. It was a difficult product, but Bharat Serums took it as a challenge. The development took over seven years as they had to get numerous approvals from Europe, which was their target. “We had to make it in a European location or in a place approved by European agencies. It took a lot of time. If everything was in one place, it could have been done in three to four years,” he said.

Pai felt that an amphotericin emulsion product, which too was developed by him and fights fungal infections, can help a lot of people if it is promoted. Pai, who retired from Bharat Serums in 2008, said the product was tested on Kala Azar patients in Bihar. “We should promote it, as it is one-third the price of Liposomal Amphotericin B,” he said.