The State Health and Family Welfare Department has issued the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for requisition ofTocilizumab and other new drugs for Covid patients in treatment facilities.
Additional Chief Secretary, Health, PK Mohapatra, in a letter to allstakeholders cited the Clinical Management Protocol: Covid-19 Version5, issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (EMR Division)of the Union Health Ministry on July 3, 2020. It suggested that injection Tocilizumab /(Off Label) may be consideredfor patients with moderate disease with progressively increasing oxygenrequirements and in mechanically-ventilated patients not improvingdespite the use of steroids. Long-term safety data in Covid remainlargely unknown.
Mohapatra instructed the district Collectors, Municipal Commissionersand all Government and private medical colleges and healthcareinstitutions in this regard. The issuance of SOP was necessary in the backdrop of more and more use of Tocilizumab and other new drugs for Covid patients. Meanwhile, the State Government has already formed an expert committee chaired by Prof Bidyut Kumar Das to recommend the use of such new drugs.Senior officials have pointed out that after receiving Tocilizumabthrough Government supply, the hospitals have not used the drugs onsome patients for whom requisitions are filed.
So, as a measure to rationalise the supply of Tocilizumab forappropriate use by needy patients and to avoid stockpiling ofthese limitedly available drugs after being issued, the hospitalauthorities must submit their requisition of the patients along with detailed information for which a prescribed form has been prepared.