central government Not included The antiviral drug mollupiravir in its Revised Clinical Guidance for the Management of Adult COVID-19 Patients, and specified that remdesivir and tocilizumab should only be prescribed under certain conditions.
It said the higher risk for serious illness or mortality is in people over the age of 60. Also people with heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and other immunocompromised conditions (such as HIV), active tuberculosis, chronic lung/kidney/liver disease, cerebrovascular disease and obesity fall into this category.
The guidelines were revised by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-COVID-19 National Task Force/Joint Monitoring Group under the Ministry of Health.
Molnupiravir previously did got a thumbs down From ICMR even after getting approval for emergency use by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). ICMR Director General Dr. Balram Bhargava had raised safety concerns regarding the drug.
new drugs
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization on January 14 added new drugs Baricitinib and Sotrovimab to treat COVID-19 patients. It noted that Baricitinib is recommended for treating people with severe or severe COVID-19 and Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody drug, is recommended for treating patients with mild or moderate COVID-19.
Speaking about the use and availability of these drugs in India, Dr. Gopi Krishna Yedlapati, Consultant Interventional Pulmonologist, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad said that sotrovimab, a synthetic antibody, was not available in the country. “Other drugs that we have used are mainly anti-inflammatory drugs such as steroids, toclizumab, baricitinib, etc., of which baricitinib has proven its efficacy in effectively controlling the disease. But before starting baricitinib “We have to be careful that the patient doesn’t have any other bacterial infections and necessarily take a blood thinner,” he said, adding that baricitinib was used effectively in most of his patients.
Dr Manoj Goel, Director of Pulmonology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, observed that baricitinib was being used in critical patients with steroids. “Baricitinib is almost equally effective as the other comparator drug, tocilizumab, with the added benefit of being more affordable and available orally. Sotrovimab is another monoclonal cocktail therapy, effective against omicrons and reducing severe disease. It is recommended for high-risk patients to stop. This drug is not yet available in India,” he added.
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