The Carlyle Group's COVID-19 portfolio is laden with recent investments in Indian pharmaceutical companies. SeQuent Pharmaceutical manufactures the drug Ivermectin, currently being use in India for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Carlyle bought into SeQuent in May of this year.
On September 28, 2020 NCBI reported:
According to government portal Clinical Trials Registry India (CTRI), ivermectin is part of at least five ongoing trials in the country [10]. At the latest, the US clinical trials registry has 38 clinical trials from different countries in different stages of completion [11]. Current clinical trials have used ivermectin in a dose ranging from 200 to 1200 mcg/kg body weight, for a duration of 3–7 days, which is showing promising results both in terms of symptomatology as well as viral load reduction [10].
Ivermectin is more cost effective as compared to hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin combination. The overall cost effectiveness, safety profile makes it more lucrative candidate for clinical trials. However, the safety of ivermectin at higher doses, in children less than 15 kg and pregnant women has insufficient evidence and hence is not recommended in these population groups [12]. With the fear of the disease among the population, herd mentality continues in India and social media is still dominated by how to take these drugs and inquiry about their doses continue among the crowd [13]. One such news of ICMR including ivermectin in treatment guidelines for COVID-19 circulated over the social media leading to a heavy over the counter sale of the drug in a short span. As a fact check the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is still reviewing the benefits of ivermectin and doxycycline as a potential therapy for COVID-19 and no such treatment guidelines is available on the website [14,15]. On April 10, 2020, FDA issued a statement concerning self-administration of ivermectin against COVID-19 referring to recently published in vitro study [4].
Economic Times India reported:
A government official said, "Many states, for example--Uttar Pradesh, are utilising the drug (Ivermectin) as off label for treatment purpose and also for prophylaxis use against Covid-19.
Indian medical officials are yet to recommend Ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment.
Time of India reported in August:
Uttar Pradesh government has approved the use of Ivermectin as a new medication for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19. The drug will replace hydroxychloriquine.
TrialSiteNews reported:
Tata Main Hospital (TMH), established in 1908, has added the combination of Ivermectin and Doxycycline to its COVID-19 treatment protocol in addition to already adding Convalescent Plasma Therapy for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients.
Carlyle is in the plasma business via its February purchase of MAK-SYSTEM, a blood products software company.
The Carlyle Group plans to profit from the pandemic's shop from home craze.
Private equity firm Carlyle Group Inc said on Thursday it had invested more than $250 million in Pharmapacks, a U.S. e-commerce firm focused on health, personal care and beauty products.The myriad of ways for Carlyle to profit from widespread COVID-19 include:
Carlyle affiliates can conduct retrospective studies on COVID-19 (TriNetX), disinfect surfaces (Victory Innovations), screen airports for people with fever (Schneider Electric & HGH), test for COVID antibodies (Ortho Clinical), assist with blood plasma collection (MAK Systems), produce antibody drug conjugate (Piramal Pharma Solutions), ensure the maximum hospital bill for COVID-19 patients (TrustHCS), manufacture Ivermectin treatment (SeQuent Scientific) and make federal coronavirus purchasing something other than a clown show (Unison).
Update 12-9-20: The Carlyle Ivermectin run could be coming to the U.S. very soon.
Update 3-28-22: Carlyle's plan to flip Pharmapacks to an SPAC is falling through "due to market conditions." SPAC deals are few and far between.
