Fresh guidelines for Remdesivir injection for private hospitals treating govt patients in Karnataka

The Karnataka government has said that while Remdesivir injections have already been used in government hospitals, the same benefits will be extended to the patients referred through the government to private hospitals.

"The injection Remdesivir is already being used in government hospitals. lt has been decided that the same benefit should be extended to the government patients, who are under treatment in private hospitals against 50% of the beds shared in those hospitals," said a press release on the guidelines issued by the Karnataka government on Friday for the use of the injection.

The guidelines said, "Remdesivir, a nucleotide analogue prodrug that inhibits viral RNA polymerases has shown in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2. lt is a broad-spectrum can be antiviral medication developed by the biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, used for drug trial on critically ill COVID-19 patients."

"The private hospital will raise demand for the issue of injection Remdesivir to Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST). ln case of Bengaluru the request will be sent to the Regional Consultant, SAST and in respect of the other districts, it will be sent to the District Co-ordinator of SAST," the guidelines added.

It said the SAST will issue advice to Karnataka State Drugs Logistics and Warehousing Society (KSDLWS) for the issue of Remdesivir injection to Regional Consultant and District Co-suggesting number of injections to be distributed.

"The KSDLWS will issue the Remdesivir injection on receipt of advice from the SAST to the Regional Consultant, Bangalore, SAST and District Co-ordinator in other districts to the private hospitals duly recording batch number, date of manufacture and other relevant details from the District Warehouse of KSDLWS," the guidelines added.

"The private network hospital will use injection Remdesivir for the COVID-19 patients admitted against the government quota. The hospital will administer the drug to the patient based on the clinical condition as per the clinical protocol issued by the Clinical Expert Team of Karnataka from time to time," the release said.

"With regards to other districts, the same manner of distribution will be there. The Regional Consultants/ ARCs of SAST will co-ordinate with the District Co-ordinators who will collect the injection Remedisivir from the district warehouses of KSDLWS and distribute to the hospital in the same manner suggested above," the guidelines added.

( With inputs from ANI )