No takers for antibody cocktail: Maha govt hospitals refuse to collect stock

Nagpur: In a development that may be considered as an indicator that the pandemic is currently under control in many parts of the state, government hospitals and medical colleges in Maharashtra have refused to collect the stock of antibody cocktail drugs which were in high demand 90 days ago.
The Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) were asked to lift the antibody cocktail drug stock from the Thane store of the state health department. Officials at Nagpur and Akola GMCH and sources at Aurangabad GMCH confirmed that the authorities have refused to take the stock as there is no need of these drugs any more.
Further, the expiry date of these medicines is nearing, so the GMCs do not want to stock the medicines for no reason.
An official from the Nagpur GMCH administrative department said, “In June, Nagpur GMCH received a letter from the state health department asking to collect 750 vials of antibody cocktail, to which we had initially agreed owing to the situation at that time. But since then the Covid-19 conditions have improved significantly. So we have informed the department that we are not going to collect the drug now.”
The official, who did not wish to be named, said that expiry date of the drugs was also nearing. Furthermore, the deep-freeze vehicles required for the transportation are also not available easily, he added. Similar letters were received by Akola and Aurangabad GMCH and sources confirmed that they have also refused to collect the medicines.
Doctors treating Covid patients in Vidarbha said the antibody cocktail is more beneficial for those in the high risk category, especially senior citizens, whose immunity levels are decreasing.
Till date, zero mortality rate has been reported among the people who were administered the drug cocktail. At present, Vidarbha hospitals have low admissions and very few of them are moderate or severely critical. More than 95% of the oxygen beds are unoccupied.