LAHORE: The Punjab government has allocated “much needed” 460 vials of Tucilizumab injection for use on 115 Covid-19 patients in intensive care units for the purpose of treatment as well as an “investigational study”.

The drug will be administered to the patients at the 15 teaching hospitals in Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi. These districts have been marked in red zone for reporting the highest number of virus cases during the pandemic of the Covid-19.

It will be the first phase of trial on maximum number of patients in advance stage of the disease after they tested positive for the virus and shifted to the hospitals for critical care. The medics will seek consent of the families, attendants or patients before administering the drug.

The Punjab government directed the hospitals to start treatment of the patients by monitoring and maintaining record of each patient to prepare a study report about its success. It has formed and notified a high-profile body named “Provincial Committee to Monitor Investigational Study on the use of Tucilizumab”. It comprises Dr Javed Hayat Khan from PKLI as convener, Prof Saqib Saeed (co-convener), Prof Kamran Cheema and associate professor Dr Irfan Malikasmembers.

The committee will thoroughly examine and monitor the entire process of use of the drug at the designated public-sector hospitals of Punjab.

According to the official documents (a copy is also available with Dawn), most of the drugs were allocated for the public teaching hospitals of Lahore. Of the total 460 vials of the drug, 244 were allocated for 61 patients of Lahore’s six teaching hospitals and 72 each for the patients of Multan, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad.

While further dividing the drug in Lahore, the government allocated 60 vials for 15 patients in Mayo Hospital and 48 vials for 12 each patients in the Lahore General Hospital and the Pakistan Kidney & Liver Institute (PKLI).

Similarly, 28 vials of Tucilizumab injection were allocated for seven patients of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and 20 vials for five patients of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

As for Rawalpindi, according to the documents, all 72 vials of the drug will be distributed in Holy Family Hospital, Benazir Bhutto Hospital and the District Headquarters Hospital.

In Faisalabad, the drug will be provided to the Allied Hospital, Ghulam Mohammad Abad Teaching Hospital and the DHQ Hospital. In Multan, all the vials will be used on the patients in the Nishtar Hospital, say the documents.

As the matter of administering the drug to the patients need extraordinary care, the heads of these government institutions and hospitals have been officially dispatched new guidelines.

“Injection Tucilizumab is an investigational drug and it has been decided that a trial shall be conducted under strict criteria in public hospitals,” reads one of the letters issued by the health department.

The government also issued a warning that only the notified state-run hospitals shall be allowed to procure the drug in question and use it on the patients admitted to the intensive care units.

The Punjab government has designated hospitals and defined number of patients on the recommendations of the Corona Experts Advisory Group (CEAG).

Punjab for instant investigational study. The consultant pulmonologists and physicians of each hospital have been given the prime role to lead the treatment process.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2020