ICMR sits on proposal to try Rs 5 arthritis drug in Covid cases

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is sitting on a proposal for a scientific trial of an inexpensive and time-examined anti-inflammatory arthritis drug that has the potential to forestall 1000’s of deaths due to Covid-19.

Indomethacin has been used to forestall cytokine storm – an irregular immune response that kills Covid-19 sufferers – in individuals with different well being circumstances. The drug prices Rs 5 a capsule, whereas Tocilizumab, a drug now used to deal with cytokine storm, prices Rs 60,000 per dose.

Chennai-primarily based kidney transplant surgeon Dr Rajan Ravichandran, who used indomethacin on his transplant sufferers first in 1989 to forestall cytokine storms, wrote to ICMR and its counterparts in the US and the UK on April 29 suggesting a scientific trial. While the UK division of well being wrote again saying the proposal has been forwarded to its Therapeutic Taskforce, ICMR is but to act on it.

ICMR director basic Dr Balram Bhargava instructed TOI that the council has acquired about 185 such proposals.

“ICMR, along with department of science and technology, department of biotechnology and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research are looking into them one by one,” he mentioned.

In the US, in the meantime, medical doctors have discovered the drug to be efficient in some 60 Covid-19 sufferers, usually higher than hydroxycholorquine. Dr Jonathan Leibowitz, a main care doctor in Brooklyn, who used indomethacin on his sufferers in an electronic mail to TOI , mentioned indomethacin “seems to have a clear positive effect and needs further investigation,” and indicated it was not being given the significance it deserve s.
Dr Ravichandran mentioned it could possibly be used on Covid-19 sufferers as a repurpose drug, however a largescale scientific trial is crucial, given the affordability and the promising outcomes a number of research on the drug have proven. – TOI