The Centre on Thursday told the Madras High Court that the demand for liposomal amphotericin-B (LAmB), a drug used for treating mucormycosis, has exceeded the supply available through domestic production as well as imports and therefore, the government had to regulate the supply to the States to avoid hoarding and inequitable distribution.
Appearing before Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, who had initiated suo motu proceedings to monitor COVID-19 related activities, Additional Solicitor General R. Sankaranarayanan said the Centre was working towards increasing the domestic production besides facilitating the increase in imports and early delivery of import orders.
In a report submitted through Senior Central Government Standing Counsel K. Srinivasamurthy, the Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said the fungal infection mucormycosis had been reported by many States among COVID-19 patients, especially those on steroid therapy and deranged sugar control.
Therefore, the Ministry had called upon all States and Union Territories to declare it as a notified disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897. It was done to ensure that every suspected as well as confirmed case of mucormycosis was reported to the Centre. The Ministry has also set up an exclusive portal to key in the details.
The increased number of cases led to a sudden demand for LAmB and therefore, the Centre called for a meeting of the manufacturers on May 7 and 8 to take stock of the situation. After sensitising the manufacturers on the need to augment production, the projected supply of the drug was increased to 1,63,752 vials in May and 2,55,114 vials in June.
Ved Prakash Mishra, Director, Department of Pharmaceuticals, also said that five new manufacturers have been given license by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and their production capacity was 1,41,500 units a month. The Centre was also assisting an existing importer Mylan Labs to procure the drugs from Gilead Inc in the U.S. Against an order of 7.05 lakh vials, 1,53,971 vials had been received.
“Further, the Ministry of External Affairs has instructed the Indian missions abroad to immediately identify additional sources of the drug,” the Director said. He also stated that the Centre had allocated 1,59,960 vials of LAmB to the States between May 11 and 26 and that Tamil Nadu had been 1,540 vials out of the total quantity.
