SOP On Tocilizumab Drug Use
- 09-May-2021
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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 all stakeholders 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 considered for patients with moderate disease with progressively increasing oxygen requirements and in mechanically-ventilated patients not improving despite the use of steroids. Long-term safety data in Covid remain largely unknown.
Mohapatra instructed the district Collectors, Municipal Commissioners and all Government and private medical colleges and health care institutions 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 Tocilizumab through Government supply, the hospitals have not used the drugs on some patients for whom requisitions are filed.
