Covid-19 impact: Government panel lists essential drugs that can run out.
A government committee has identified various essential drugs including key antibiotics such as amoxicillin, moxifloxacin, doxycycline and tuberculosis (TB) drug rifampicin that could run out as supplies of bulk raw materials from China have been disrupted because of Covid-19 outbreak. A high-level government committee, which submitted its report to the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) last week, reviewed 54 drugs and said that out of these, 34 have no alternative.ET has seen the report. Out of the 54, it classified 32 as critical and essential, 15 as noncritical and essential and seven drugs as essential. Govt Calls Series of Meetings Today Some of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) used to make critical and essential drugs that don’t have alternatives include potassium clavulanate, ceftriaxone sodium sterile, piperacillin tazobactum, meropenam, vancomycin, gentamycin and ciprofloxacinamong others, according to the report. The panel had earlier asked I...