Will antibody cocktail help: HC to Centre

New Delhi: One of the largest

pharma companies

has told the Delhi high court that a new

“antibody cocktail”

is on the anvil, which can replace Tocilizumab, a drug used in severe

Covid 19

cases but in short supply.

It claimed that the drug “significantly reduces the risk of hospitalisation or death by 70% and it can also significantly shorten the duration of symptoms by four days” so it is trying to supply 1,00,000 doses of the cocktail drug to India by the end of May.

Following the statement by Roche, the high court asked the central government to find out if demand for Tocilizumab would be reduced if Roche provides its new drug that has been approved for emergency use in India for coronavirus patients.

Justice Prathiba M Singh also asked the Centre what quantities of the antibody cocktail would be required for the purpose of reducing demand for Tocilizumab, after Roche candidly admitted in an affidavit that its focus is on bringing the “antibody cocktail Casirivimab and lmdevimab used in the treatment of Covid-19, especially for the treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19 in patients who are at high risk of severe Covid-19.”

Roche further submitted that it can only try to supply Tocilizumab but cannot assure to meet the market demand for the same, even though patients are willing to pay for it even as the Centre told the high court it has placed sufficient orders, which reflect the demand of Tocilizumab 400 mg, with Roche India but the company has been unable to supply. It said the government was following up with Roche India to increase the quantum of imports to India.

As Roche was unable to give any assurance regarding supply of Tocilizumab and since it was required by patients here, the court asked the Centre how it intended to obtain the medicine through the drug major or its global manufacturers, FHoffman-La Roche Ltd in Switzerland and Chugai Seiyaku Kabushki Kaisha in Japan. The court also asked the government when the results for the phase III trials of Tocilizumab, approved in favour of two Indian companies—Hetero Biopharma Ltd and JSS Medical Research India Pvt Ltd—were expected and what were the applicable guidelines.

During the hearing on May 12, Roche told the court that a consignment of 45,000 Tocilizumab 80 mg vials, which would cater to around 9,000 patients, arrived in India last week in the form of humanitarian aid extended by it. Besides that, 1,00,000 vials of Tocilizumab 80 mg, to cater to 20,000 doses, had also been imported by Roche.

The high court is hearing petitions by kin of two Covid-19 patients who were prescribed Tocilizumab by doctors but were unable to immediately arrange the medicine from anywhere. They later received the required medication and are stable.