Govt committed to provide costly injections to Covid patients: Nitin Patel

Patel said the two injections are very costly and there are limited producers/suppliers of the same in the market. But yet, he added, the state government was providing it to the patients following recommendation by expert doctors. According to Patel, the state government has been making attempts to make sure that Gujarat gets maximum supply of Tosilizumab and Remdesivir injections. He said that Gujarat has got consent from the sole producer of Tosilizumab injection to provide 2,537 vials of the injection. Out of them, 2,220 vials were delivered and 2,083 administered to Covid-19 patients. Patel said that because the supply is limited, the government is providing it as per the recommendations by the expert doctors.

On Remdesivir injections, Patel said that against demand of 8,050 injections, the state government could get only 250 injections and 86 of them have already been utilised.

“As per the permission given by Drug Controller General of India, only two companies can produce the (Remdesivir) injection. A third company has recently been given licence to produce it,” the release quoted Patel as saying.

It further said that two senior IAS officers of the Gujarat government have held a meeting with the officials of this company, which has consented to provide 2,000-2,500 Remdesivir injections to India after starting its production within two days.

Patel said that it was unfortunate that the opposition Congress was criticising the state government at a time when the latter was treating Covid-19 patients without any discrimination. He added that it was the need of the hour that the opposition party start showing political maturity by serving the country and humanity while stopping to play politics in the amid a pandemic.