Demand for 'Antibody Cocktail' grows in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The newly launched 'Antibody Cocktail' drug, which provides quick cure from corona infection, is now in high demand in Hyderabad.

Demand for the Casirivimab and Imdevimab cocktail drug, which was made available in the country recently, has shot up manifolds in the city. The hospitals are receiving flood of phone calls from Covid patients from Telangana and other states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Taking advantage, a few hospitals began fleecing the Covid patients by charging around Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh per dose as against the company price of Rs 70,000. Authorities suspect that the distributing agencies were resorting to the hoarding of the medicine in view of growing demand for the costly drug.

The drug has been developed by a US pharma company last year and got all clearances from the Union government for medical treatment in the country recently. The clinical trials on corona infected patients had disclosed that the cocktail drug had helped patients in reducing the risk of hospitalisation. This drug helps corona patients with mild and moderate symptoms to recover fast.

The corporate hospitals were administering intravenous drug to the Covid patients in the OP (Out Patient ) ward after conducting required medical tests. "They were being kept under medical observation for two hours before sending them back to their homes," doctors said. It is alleged that some distribution agencies have reportedly created artificial shortage of the drug in the city and diverted the same to the black market. On receiving complaints of non-availability of the medicine, the government has instructed the State Drug Control Authority to verify the supply of the costly drug to the corporate hospitals by the distributing agencies in order to check the exploitation of the patients.