The Supreme Court on Wednesday said there was an approval by the Central government on use of Remdesivir and Fabiparivir as medicines to treat COVID-19.
The top court was hearing a plea seeking registration of an FIR by the CBI against ten Indian pharmaceutical firms for manufacturing and selling these two medicines for treating COVID-19 patients allegedly without valid licences.
Remdesivir and Favipiravir are antiviral drugs and their efficacy in treating COVID-19 patients are a matter of debate among doctors .
A bench comprising judge S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian mentioned the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2018 and said these medicines are permitted by the govt for using in treatment of novel coronavirus patients.
“You haven’t noticed this rule (New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules) and filed this petition. We are adjourning this matter, you see the principles then come ,” the bench told lawyer M Sharma who has filed the PIL.
Adjourning the hearing by fortnight , the bench said, “There is approval by the govt of India for Remdesivir and Fabiparivir”.
Seeking CBI probe, Sharma had filed the PIL alleging that these two medicines are wrongly manufactured and sold for treating COVID-19 patients with none valid licences from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation.
“That respondent no.3 to 10 are Indian drug company who have signed partnership agreements with foreign companies that are Gilead Science Inc -USA and Fujifilm Japan, to manufacture and sale impugned drug, Remdesivir and Avagin (Favipiravir) in India. Without having a licence, the are manufacturing and selling impugned drugs as a drugs for corona in India,” the PIL alleged.
