Covid drugs used sans nod? Supreme Court seeks government reply

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday sought response from the Centre on a plea alleging that two medicines Remdesivir and Favipiravir, are being used for treatment of COVID-19 without approval. A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde issued notice to the Centre on the plea and sought its response in four weeks.

Advocate M L Sharma petitioner in-person referred to the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, the World Health Organisation (WHO) report of October 15 and said that nowhere these medicines are designated officially as medicines for coronavirus.

The bench said that it is only going to make central government aware of it and therefore issuing notice.

On September 16, the top court had said that there was an approval by the central government on use of Remdesivir and Favipiravir, as medicines to treat COVID-19. The top court was hearing a plea seeking registration of a first information report by the Central Bureau of Investigation against 10 Indian pharmaceutical firms for manufacturing and selling these two medicines for treating COVID-19 patients allegedly without valid licences.