Indian drug maker Lupin has launched its generic brand of Merck’s oral antiviral drug molnupiravir under the brand name Molnulup. The company said that the  approval for Molnulup is timely as India is again experiencing an upward spike in COVID-19 incidences. In the two years since COVID-19 emerged, there has been a need for an oral antiviral medicine that can be prescribed by healthcare practitioners and then taken by the patients conveniently at home. Lupin, through its large sales network across the country, will make Molnulup readily available immediately at pharmacies pan India to meet patient demand, it said in a Friday statement. Lupin is the second Indian pharmaceutical company, after Sun Pharma, to launch the generic version of molnupiravir in the country under a marketing license from the inventor Merck & Company.