COVID-19: Odisha Allows Market Sale of Favipiravir and Remdesivir with Conditions

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has allowed the market sale of Favipiravir and Remdesivir injectable formulations with conditions.

The Directorate of Drugs Control has set the following conditions for the sale of the two drugs for treatment of COVID-19 patients.

Here are conditions:

They will be sold under the prescription of medical specialists only
Informed consent of the patient or his/her representative in the prescribed form is mandatory before initiating the treatment.

The drug will be made available to the patient/his representative only through in-house retail chemists attached to hospitals/nursing homes having valid drug licenses.

Where there is no in-house retail chemist shop in the hospital/nursing home, the local Drugs Inspector will identify one or more retail chemist shop through whom the drugs will be made available.

The retail chemist shop will mandatorily retain a photocopy of prescription, photocopy of written consent of the patient of the patient or his/her representative, residential proof of the purchaser and his/her contact details before supply of the medicines as record for verification in addition to fulfillment of other conditions under the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules.

Remdesivir formulations are required to be supplied for use only to the hospitals/institutions to ensure proper use of the drug under the Restricted Emergency Use. In no case Remdesivir formulation is to be sold to any patient/his representative directly.

The retail chemist shall furnish details of purchase/sell of the above drugs to the respective range of Drugs Inspector on a weekly basis.