Intensivists and infectious diseases specialists, faced with a dire situation where effective antibiotics to treat drug-resistant infections are lacking, have called on the government to allow emergency use authorisation (EUA), as successfully done during the COVID-19 pandemic, for certain life-saving drugs.
In a letter to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) Rajeev Raghuvanshi and copied to Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Abdul Ghafur, Coordinator, Chennai Declaration on Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR), has urged the government to seriously consider the matter.
“There are instances where not a single available drug in our country proves effective in treating these infections. Unfortunately, by the time we receive compassionate use permission to procure investigational antibiotics in phase 3 or licensed antibiotics from other countries, patients with severe infections succumb,” his communiqué says.
