The drug is at present allowed for emergency/compassionate use in treating severely ill Covid-19 patients and is likely to be part of the protocol. (File Photo)
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director-general, Dr Balram Bhargava, on Wednesday said that there has been a revision in the treatment protocol for clinical management of Covid-19 patients. “We will put up details on the (ICMR’s) website on Thursday,” Dr Bhargava told The Indian Express.
ICMR, the country’s apex health research institution, has been mulling over the use of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug which has shown improvement in coronavirus patients in formal clinical trials. The drug is at present allowed for emergency/compassionate use in treating severely ill Covid-19 patients and is likely to be part of the protocol.
Remdesivir was granted emergency use authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration last month and has received approval by Japanese health regulators. According to sources,with the government set to procure drugs, Indian companies are looking at manufacturing biosimilars (a biological product that is developed to be similar to an already approved biologic). Hospitals so far do not have the drug, intensivists (intensive care physicians) at various dedicated Covid hospitals said.