State gets 160 Tocilizumab shots

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 2

Haryana finally received 160 injections of Tocilizumab, a monoclonal antibody drug for treatment of critically ill Covid patients, after the drug had gone out of stock for several days due to high demand and low supply.

Of these, 10 injections have been allocated till today, to private hospitals, by the expert committee of doctors constituted by the government for this purpose.

Five injections of Tocilizumab have been allocated to a private hospital in Gurugram, three to a private hospital in Faridabad and two in two different private hospitals in the state.

“We received several requests from various private hospitals. Most of these hospitals wanted that 10-20 injections be supplied to them. But we examined individual cases of patients admitted in the hospitals and allocated these injections on merit,” said a member of the expert committee.

Not a single request for the injection has come from any government hospital or medical college so far.

Tocilizumab is a strong immune system suppressant and is indicated to control “cytokine storm” rapidly. Its use has to be guided by the clinical condition of the patient.

Although many experts have said that the drug reduces mortality by merely 10 per cent, it has been in great demand ever since the surge in Covid cases in the present second wave.

Rajeev Arora, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, constituted an expert committee to distribute the injections.

“The supply to private institutions will be on actual cost as procured and informed by the HMSCL. However, for all government hospitals and medical colleges, it will be free of cost,” said Arora.