Panels to monitor use of Remdesivir

BENGALURU: Division-wise committees of expert doctors have been constituted to monitor directly and indirectly, through reports, the movement of Remdesivir injection vials and regulate the use for the bonafide purpose of treating sick and severely sick Covid-19 inpatients in a hospital set-up.

As per the latest SOPs on Remdesivir, the health and family welfare department said the committees have been directed to keep a close watch on the expenditure of vials in government and government-assisted private hospitals, in order to regulate seamless availability of the Remdesivir injection.

This is in order to prevent the deaths of all Covid-19 patients admitted for treatment. “Government and private hospitals storing government supplied Remdesivir injection shall open an exclusive stock register for the accountability of Remdesivir drug which is highly resource intensive,” the SOP read.

“After administration of the Remdesivir drug to the patient, the wrapper of the injection vial shall be crushed and pinned to the case sheet of the patients, so that each patient who is administered the injection shall have six flattened wrappers pinned to the case sheet,” it added. The vial of the injection, after administration of the drug, shall be preserved for inspection by the divisional monitoring team, officers from the health department, district administration or officers from Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust.

“Hospitals which use this drug supplied by the government for free treatment shall enter the batch number and daily dose administered to the patients in the patient case sheet, Covid in-patient register and treatment portal through a responsible person working in the in-patient ward, which shall be duly attested by the treating physician,” the guidelines added.

REMDESIVIR IN STOCK
Remdesivir is administered to Covid-19 patients in six doses of 100ml each, and is given to all in-patients in hospitals who are in need of oxygen. The drug, which was earlier available at a high price, now costs Rs
2,400 per vial. State authorities say that there is enough stock in Karnataka’s warehouses, though there was a shortage scare early on during the Covid outbreak. With a number of pharmaceutical companies
joining in the production of the drug, there is buffer stock in Karnataka.