No takers for remdesivir since May 25, Ghaziabad left with 3,000 doses

Ghaziabad: The demand for remdesivir injection, used to treat Covid-19 patients with moderate symptoms, has dropped significantly since May 25

Ghaziabad: The demand for remdesivir injection, used to treat Covid-19 patients with moderate symptoms, has dropped significantly since May 25. As a result, the district is left with a stock of over 3,000 doses of the injection which will expire in January 2022, said officials of the district health department.

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According to official records, the district received 6,255 doses of remdesivir from April 1 to May 31. As many as 2,839 doses were given to various government facilities, while 394 were provided to different private hospitals.

“In all, we provided 3,792 doses to different government and private facilities, and some batches comprising 556 doses were returned due to adverse drug reaction events. Now, we have a stock of 3,019 doses of remdesivir, but there is hardly any taker. The last batch of 200 doses was provided to Santosh Medical College on May 25 and thereafter no hospital has asked for the drug,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.

“However, we have decided not to return the stock,” he added.

During mid of April when patients faced difficulties in getting remdesivir and some cases of black marketing also emerged, the district administration had identified six distributors who were tasked to provide the drug to hospitals and other Covid centres.

Experts said that the health department should keep the stock for future use. “The present stock of remdesivir may come handy, in case the thrid wave of the pandemic arrives. Remdesivir has yielded encouraging results in combination with other drugs in Covid treatment,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad chapter).

“The requirement of remdesivir has now considerably reduced as the number of cases has also declined significantly,” he added.

On June 8, the Ghaziabad administration had formed nine different teams for better management of Covid-related activities. One of the teams headed by additional district magistrate (finance) is tasked to ensure ambulance services and availability of life-saving drugs like remdesivir and tocilizumab.