Since various strains of COVID–19 are emerging in the world and wave after the wave of the pandemic is affecting our country as well, the government must retain various committees including the Drugs Coordination Committee (DCC) and the COVID Drugs Management Cell (CDMC) to continuously function till the pandemic is completely over, said a parliamentary panel.
This is one of the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers — Availability of medicines and medical devices for COVID management — which tabled its report early this week in Parliament. The Committee is chaired by MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.
While the DCC is an institutional mechanism with representation from various stakeholder Ministers and Departments for efficient decision making on all the issues with respect to COVID–19 related drugs, the CDMC set–up in the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) looked at the management of smooth supply of drugs used in the COVID–19 management.
It said the DCC and its meeting should be held regularly for coordinating the efforts of various Ministries/Departments to make available the medicines and medical devices required for COVID–19.
The Committee, which raised concerns about the large–scale black marketing of remdesivir in particular and other medicines and medical devices in general at exorbitant prices during peak period of the second wave noted that immediate attention should be paid to address the issue of dependence on other countries for the raw materials particularly the excipients required for the production of COVID–19 related medicines.
“All necessary measures should be initiated on war footing for the manufacture of APIs and excipients in the country to end the dependence on other countries,’’ said the Committee.
It said the Central government should continuously maintain a buffer stock of all the medicines required for the treatment of COVID–19 and that a transparent and fair process should be adopted for the equal distribution of medicines and medical devices to meet the day–to–day requirements of each State and Union Territory.
“The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should continuously impress upon its missions abroad to provide the necessary assistance to the Indian manufacturers in getting the raw materials including excipients from the overseas suppliers for the manufacture of COVID–19 drugs. Secondly, Indian missions should play a strong role for the import of required quantities of medicines like tocilizumab which are not manufactured in the country.’
Stating that the COVID Drugs Management Cell (CDMC) at the Centre alone is not sufficient, the Committee has recommended that similar COVID Drugs Management Cells need to be created at State/Union Territory level so that holistic monitoring and availability and distribution of medicines/medical devices is ensured in each State/UT. It also highlighted that there was a significant increase in the number of cases of Mucormycosis (Black Fungus) in Covid–19 patients during the second wave.
“The Committee feels that it is important to further strengthen the Health Ministry’s real time web platform so that real time information regarding availability of critical COVID medicines and medical devices at village, block and district levels is available with the Department of Pharmaceuticals and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to enable them take immediate necessary action in case of shortage of medicines and medical devices at any level.’
