BHOPAL: In the second wave of Covid, a serious crisis of Remdesivir and other anti-viral drugs has cropped up in Madhya Pradesh as it has cropped up in the rest of the country and it continues to plague government, as well as private, hospitals.
Remdesivir injection is called a life-saving drug for Covid patients, but the hard fact is that a large number of Covid-19 patients have died even after they were given shots of Remdesivir or other anti-viral drugs, such as Tocilizumab. Remdesivir costs over Rs 30,000 and Tocilizumab costs Rs 40,000 to Rs50,000.
According to healthcare professionals, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report says Remdesivir has not reduced the number of deaths. Besides, this shot has failed to provide quick relief to a patient. There is a shortage of Remdesivir injections, which the kin of corona patients are buying in the blackmarket at exorbitant rates. These injections are administered to patients in a critical condition to check viral infection in the lungs, so these patients hardly survive.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a recommendation against the use of Remdesivir. Interim results from its solidarity trial, which was looking at repurposing existing anti-viral drugs to manage Covid-19, found that “there is currently no evidence that Remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients.”
Yet, many states, such as Madhya Pradesh, had sent out urgent requests to stock up on Remdesivir injections in order to provide them free of cost to the poor. The government also asked pharmaceutical companies to prioritise Remdesivir production.
Remdesivir can potentially have very limited benefits. Taking off from the WHO trial, a study suggests that the drug is effective only when administered to those who are diagnosed with a risk of hyper-inflammation, before 10 days into the infection. Similarly, the use Tocilizumab was just 24 hours after a critically ill Covid-19 patient was admitted to the ICU to improve outcomes and survival.
'Thin chance of survival'
"Many critical patients who were given shots of Remdesivir couldn’t survive. It’s shocking for the public that a large number of Covid patients died even after the shots. Earlier, it was given at an initial stage to prevent the infection from spreading, but, now, it’s given in case of critical condition, so, there’s only a thin chance of the patients surviving," says Dr Parag Sharma, senior doctor, Hamidia Hospital.
‘No evidence’
Interim results from the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) solidarity trial, which was looking at repurposing existing anti-viral drugs to manage Covid-19, found that ‘there is currently no evidence that Remdesivir improves survival and other outcomes in these patients’
