Bhubaneswar: At a time when COVID-19 cases are spiralling out of control in Odisha, a piece of good news came in the form of the state government allowing sale of COVID-19 drug Favipiravir tablet and Remdesivir injectable formulation across the state.
With the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) giving its green signal for sale of Favipiravir tablet and Remdesivir injectable formulation for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, the Directorate of Drugs Control, Odisha, informed Saturday that the medicines will be sold, but with certain restrictions.
These are the conditions for the market sale of Favipiravir tablet and Remdesivir injectable formulation in Odisha:
- The drug will be sold under prescription of medical specialists.
- Informed consent of the patient or his/ her representative in the prescribed form is mandatory before initiating the treatment.
- The drug will be made available to the patient/ his representative only through in-house retail chemists attached to hospitals/nursing homes having valid drug licences. At places where there is no in-house retail chemist shop in the hospital/ nursing home, the local drugs inspector will identify one or more retail chemist shop through whom the drugs will be made available.
- The retail chemist shop will mandatorily retain a photocopy of the prescription, photocopy of written consent of the patient or his/her representative, residential proof of the purchaser and his/her contact details before the supply of the medicines as a record for verification in addition to fulfilment of other conditions under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules.
- Remdesivir formulations are required to be supplied for use only to the hospitals/ institutions to ensure proper use of the drug under Restricted Emergency Use rules. In no case, Remdesivir formulation is to be sold to any patient/ his representative directly.
- The retail chemist shall furnish details of purchase/ sell of the above drugs to the respective range Drugs Inspector on a weekly basis.
The drug inspectors have also been asked to identify one or more standalone stockist and retail chemist to facilitate supply of the drugs. They are to ensure the stockist and retail chemist should have valid drug licences and must have a good track record under the provision of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules thereunder. They are to verify purchase and sale details of the stockists/ retail chemists from time to time to weed out possible hoarding or black marketing and report compliance, the DCGI said.