The Supreme Court on Thursday asked an NGO to approach the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with its reservations about seriously ill COVID-19 patients in intensive care units being subjected to “controversial, unproven, non-specific and potentially toxic off-label” use of anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine and broad-spectrum antibiotic Azithromycin.
A Bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana stopped short of intervening on a writ petition filed by NGO People for Better Treatment, saying the court is not an expert. It asked Dr. Kunal Saha, president of the NGO, to submit his research with ICMR.
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People for Better Treatment had drawn the court’s attention to an extraordinary bulletin issued jointly on April 8 by the American Heart Association (AHA), the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) with warnings on the use of the two drugs on COVID-19 patients with existing cardiac conditions.
The bulletin said the use of these drugs on patients with cardiac conditions would possibly trigger arrythmia (abnormal heartbeat), heart failure and even death. It advised specific therapeutic measures in such cases.
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“Most of the drugs presently being used to treat COVID-19 patients are based primarily on anecdotal evidence and not on direct scientific data because very little actual research has been published on this new strain of coronaviruse, which was isolated for the first time only a few months ago. COVID-19 patients receive primarily symptomatic therapy because no specific drug against the new SARS-CoV-2 viruse has been invented till now... Needless to say that when treating the vulnerable patients with an unproven drug for its off-label use, doctors should be extra vigilant about its potential harmful adverse effects on COVID-19 patients,” the petition said.
