The Delhi high court on Tuesday asked the central government to prioritise younger people over older ones to give Amphotericin-B, a last-line drug used to treat mucormycosis that is in acute shortage across the country due to an unprecedented spike in cases.
The direction comes a day after the court informed the Centre and Delhi government that they need to work out a distribution policy for the anti-fungal medicine and take the “cruel decision” of excluding a certain age group or class of people from receiving it owing to its current scarcity.
Citing data it has obtained, the court said there is currently a 66 per cent shortage in availability of drugs, even as cases of black fungus are on an upward trajectory. It acknowledged that the government has been making efforts to procure the drugs by getting in touch with the primary manufacturer and the patent holder, issuing fresh licenses to bolster the manufacturing capacity in India.
“However, the requirement of Liposmal Amphotericin-B is far in excess of availability. In this situation, it has fallen on shoulders of the Centre to take a policy decision with regard to manner in which the drug should be made available to those suffering,” the bench stated.
The administration of drug has to be prioritised for those with better chances of survival as also the younger generation, having promise of future over the older ones who have lived their lives, the high court said.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said the Centre may carve out an exception in the policy for those serving the nation in high position and whose safety and security is necessary because of the pivotal roles that they play.
The court said it is high time that the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR), which is a statutory body constituted to lay down guidelines for medical treatment of patients suffering from various ailments, comes out with clear guidelines on the use of Liposomal Amphotericin-B, plain Amphotericin-B and Posaconazole, for the treatment of black fungus. PTI
