Assam govt procures psoriasis drug Itolizumab to reduce Covid-19 mortality

GUWAHATI: Assam has procured Itolizumab, an old drug used for treating patients with moderate to severe psoriasis and has been now approved by Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for Covid-19 treatment for easing the symptoms to try and reduce mortality in the state, which has reached 48.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The national drugs control body has approved two new drugs Tocilizumab and Itolizumab but they are costly and not easily available. We have been told that Assam is the first state to first acquire Itolizumab, just three days after CDSCO approved its use.”
The drug is produced by Biocon Limited, the Bangalore-based pharmaceutical company headed by entrepreneur Kiran Shaw.
He added, “Our suppliers have been able to give us just 100 vials of only Itolizumab. Each vial costs approximately Rs 10,000 and one person will need four vials. After treating a patient with drugs worth Rs 40,000, he or she might come out healthy. Assam has already been using Dexamethasone, also for easing symptoms, and antiviral drug Remdesivir, which have also been approved by CDSCO for Covid-19 treatment. Sarma said that so far Remdesivir has given encouraging results in the state.
“After seeing the deadly nature of Covid-19, all our six medical colleges and hospitals have taken a collective decision to change our treatment line to an aggressive mode to stop mortality in consultation with experts in AAIMS, Delhi and Max Hospitals,” Sarma said.
“We are trying to go for the aggressive treatment at the moderate stage and not wait for a patient to slip into the critical stage when its gets very difficult to reverse the patient’s conditions,” Sarma added.
The treatment first starts with oxygen therapy by artificial infusion of oxygen into a moderately-affected patient. “Then follows a regime of use of the anti-viral Remdesivir, which costs approximately Rs 8,000 per vial,” he said.
He said that so far, Remdesivir has been used in 83 patients in the state and 36 patients have recovered.
“In Guwahati Medical College and Hospital, this drug has been used on 65 patients of which four have died. Similarly in Assam Medical College, out of the 11 patients who were injected with Remdesivir, only one has died and at Jorhat Medical College one of the two patients injected with this drug has died but there is no death among the patients on this drug at Silchar, Tezpur and Barpeta medical colleges after use of Remdesivir.