The city-based National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) has joined the international race to develop new drugs and a vaccine for Covid-19. It has also taken up the task of repurposing drugs — approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) of the US — for their fast introduction into the market.
NIPER is busy using computational tools to design new drugs to fight against novel coronavirus and its associated complications such as inflammatory ‘cytokine storm’ (or immune system going awry), pneumonia and lung conditions. “The institute is working on nasal sprays as adjuvant therapy to control viral entry through nose and spread though nasal droplets. We are also developing localised inhalational formulations,” NIPER director Dr Shashi Bala Singh told TOI.