Eurofarma teams up with ICB-USP to study Covid-19 drugs
Published in: April 23, 2020
and updated in: November 4, 2021
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São Paulo, April 2020 – Eurofarma, Brazil’s own top investor in innovations countrywide, has been working on several drug research projects in cooperation with the Phenotypic Screening Platform Laboratory, of the Biomedical Sciences Institute of Universidade de São Paulo (ICB-USP). Due to the recent pandemic, this partnership expanded to repurposing existing drugs with other indications to assess their potential in preventing and fighting Covid-19.
The company made one of its libraries available, featuring a wide range of more than 1,500 drugs – already covered in study platforms of USP’s laboratory – to cover other projects, including the latest research projects.
“We are the Brazilian pharmaceutical company that most invests in Research & Development across the country. We expect to invest more than BRL 330 million in 2020 alone, accounting for approximately 8% of our net income. We are constantly working to discover new drugs, both with internal initiatives and through partnerships like the one with the Biomedical Sciences Institute. Eurofarma has collaborated with the university for a few years now, and we had already made our library with 1,500 compounds available for antibiotic testing. Now, these same molecules are being tested for Covid-19,” said Martha Pena, Eurofarma’s VP of Innovation.
The advantage of testing existing medications for Covid-19 is that this process is much faster, since there is already extensive knowledge regarding the safety of these substances. “With this consolidated database, scientists can repurpose these molecules by studying how they respond against the virus. Partnerships with universities, doctors, scientists and researchers, and the company’s ever-growing investments, enable us to work on emergency clinical trials, which is what we’re doing right now,” said Gabriela Barreiro, Pre-Clinical Manager at Eurofarma.
About Eurofarma Group
As the first multinational pharmaceutical company with 100% Brazilian capital, the Eurofarma Group has been operating in the health industry since its establishment in 1972, producing and marketing innovative products and services to improve people’s quality of life. Focused on generating shared value, it operates in the areas of Prescription, Non-Prescription, and Generic Drugs, Hospital, Oncology and Veterinary. In Brazil alone, it offers 313 products, 649 dosage forms, serves 25 medical specialties and covers 89 therapeutic classes, which represent 81% of prescriptions in the brand market.
The Eurofarma Group has own operations in 20 countries, with an industrial park in Brazil and plants in 6 more Latin American countries. Reported sales totaled BRL 5.6 billion in 2019 and the Group employs over 7,000 employees.
Eurofarma in social media
Facebook: @eurofarma | LinkedIn: @eurofarma
Instagram: @eurofarma_br | Twitter: @eurofarmaLab
Press Information
G&A – Public Relations
Glauce Martins – +55 (11) 5090-8646/(11) 98151-7006 – glauce@gaspar.com.br
Guilherme Gaspar – +55 (11) 98285-6000 – guilherme@gaspar.com.br
The company made one of its libraries available, featuring a wide range of more than 1,500 drugs – already covered in study platforms of USP’s laboratory – to cover other projects, including the latest research projects.
“We are the Brazilian pharmaceutical company that most invests in Research & Development across the country. We expect to invest more than BRL 330 million in 2020 alone, accounting for approximately 8% of our net income. We are constantly working to discover new drugs, both with internal initiatives and through partnerships like the one with the Biomedical Sciences Institute. Eurofarma has collaborated with the university for a few years now, and we had already made our library with 1,500 compounds available for antibiotic testing. Now, these same molecules are being tested for Covid-19,” said Martha Pena, Eurofarma’s VP of Innovation.
The advantage of testing existing medications for Covid-19 is that this process is much faster, since there is already extensive knowledge regarding the safety of these substances. “With this consolidated database, scientists can repurpose these molecules by studying how they respond against the virus. Partnerships with universities, doctors, scientists and researchers, and the company’s ever-growing investments, enable us to work on emergency clinical trials, which is what we’re doing right now,” said Gabriela Barreiro, Pre-Clinical Manager at Eurofarma.
About Eurofarma Group
As the first multinational pharmaceutical company with 100% Brazilian capital, the Eurofarma Group has been operating in the health industry since its establishment in 1972, producing and marketing innovative products and services to improve people’s quality of life. Focused on generating shared value, it operates in the areas of Prescription, Non-Prescription, and Generic Drugs, Hospital, Oncology and Veterinary. In Brazil alone, it offers 313 products, 649 dosage forms, serves 25 medical specialties and covers 89 therapeutic classes, which represent 81% of prescriptions in the brand market.
The Eurofarma Group has own operations in 20 countries, with an industrial park in Brazil and plants in 6 more Latin American countries. Reported sales totaled BRL 5.6 billion in 2019 and the Group employs over 7,000 employees.
Eurofarma in social media
Facebook: @eurofarma | LinkedIn: @eurofarma
Instagram: @eurofarma_br | Twitter: @eurofarmaLab
Press Information
G&A – Public Relations
Glauce Martins – +55 (11) 5090-8646/(11) 98151-7006 – glauce@gaspar.com.br
Guilherme Gaspar – +55 (11) 98285-6000 – guilherme@gaspar.com.br