When Covid-19 has brought the entire world to a standstill due to unavailability of vaccine and particular treatment, an ongoing study led by an Odia researcher on a drug for treatment of corona patients has given rise to hope for billions.
A team comprising of three researchers, including an Odia youth Aditya Kumar Padhi, is conducting the study in Japan on an existing drug ‘Umifenovir’ to find whether it can be effective for treating Covid-19 patients with mild symptoms.
The 32-year-old Padhi is a postdoctoral research fellow at the RIKEN Yokohama Campus, Japan. He is leading the research to find ‘Umifenovir’, the potential anti-influenza drug, which has been recommended and used by China and Russia to curb the Covid fatality rate, can cure Covid-19-infected patients.
Padhi hails from Rayagada district. His father is a retired Government employee. After completing his matriculation from the GCD High School in 2003 and intermediate course from the Rayagada Autonomous College in 2005, he studied BTech in biotechnology at the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT), Rourkela. He completed his PhD in biological sciences from the IIT Delhi in 2016.