Mucormycosis: Bengal faces low supply of essential drug

KOLKATA: While cases of mucormycosis or black fungus are being reported in Bengal, the state is grappling with a very low supply of Liposomal Amphotericine-B, an essential drug to treat fungal infection in Covid-19 patients. The Union government on Saturday has made available 50 more vials of the drug to West Bengal.
The demand for Liposomal Amphotericine-B started increasing after rising number of cases of black fungus were registered across states.“Till May 4-5, there was not much demand of Amphotericine-B. Companies manufacturing the anti-fungal drug had a low production. But demand started to rise from May 5. We hope that supply will increase in a week,” said Rajiv Singhal, general secretary of the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists.
After the increase in demand , the Centre restricted its supply to retail shops and like several other medicines, Amphotericine-B, too, was supplied directly to hospitals on need basis. According to Pinaki Dey, consultant with the ILS Hospital, Amphotericine-B has been used in cases of kala azar earlier.
Somnath Ghosh of Metro Pharmacy said that they were receiving a lot of queries for the drug.