First: Intas Pharma launches antifungal drug SB-100mg Itraconazole

"Itaspor SB Forte/Subawin is expected to improve patient compliance and reduce the Doctor's counselling time. It will reduce dosing to half," the company said in a recent release.

Furthermore, patients can take it with or without a meal with just water or as directed by the physician. The cost of the therapy is also reduced substantially.

As per published literature and clinicians' experience, the Itraconazole molecule has low blood drug concentration, affecting safety and efficacy when taken orally. These blood levels highly vary from patient to patient. Moreover, the recommendation to take it with a full fatty meal and an acidic beverage further reduces patient compliance and adds to the problem of desired blood drug concentration. Another factor is the cost of therapy for fungal infection patients, as treatment duration varies from 3 to 8 weeks.

"Intas' newest formulation within the 25 year old brand Itaspor is formulated with Super Bioavailable (SB) Technology that makes 1 Itaspor-SB Forte capsule equivalent to conventional 200mg Itraconazole," said Dr Alok Chaturvedi, Senior Vice-president & Head - Medical Affairs, Intas Pharmaceuticals.

"Given the benefits of Super Bioavailable (SB) Technology like half the drug, no inter-patient variability, freedom to prescribe with/without food, any beverage, even with Antacids, and that too with reduction in overall treatment cost certainly seems to be a win-win proposition," said Dr R D Kharkar, Senior Consultant Dermatologist, Mumbai.