In recent developments, Jeetendra Awhad, Housing Minister and Eknath Shinde, Urban Development Minister, took on bureaucrats over the non-availability of important drugs for the patients suffering from coronavirus.
Awhad and Shindhe maintained that the netas have been maintaining silence over the black marketing of these crucial drugs. Doctor Pradeep Vyas, Public Health Secretary, tried to defend the government, however, the ministers were not satisfied.
It was earlier reported that Tocilizumab and Remdesivir, the two drugs that are still undergoing trials as a possible treatment for the coronavirus are in huge demand as cases of COVID-19 witness a surge in the state. Medical practitioners have been prescribing it to patients with moderate symptoms to severely ill patients even as scientific evidence on their efficacy is still on hold. Pradeep Vyas, keeping in view of the situation, had stated that they are soon going to release a treatment protocol so that the “drug is not unnecessarily prescribed and administered to COVID-19 patients”.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on July 11, had stated that following the reports of Tocilizumab and Remsesivir being sold in the black markets, the FDA has decided to work together in order to fight black marketing.
Tocilizumab happened to be a drug largely used by patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and now is being used for the treatment of coronavirus in many places around the globe. In Mumbai, the drug has been used on several COVID-19 patients, all of the critical cases. On the other hand, Remdesivir happens to be one of the drugs in leading the fight against the coronavirus. After long extensive trials, the makers had gotten the go-ahead from the FDA for the usage of the drug in the treatment of COVID-19. It is an antiviral drug which works by copying the coronavirus's genetic make-up, the RNA and slows down replication.