"Not Life-Saving Drug": Centre Clarifies On Remdesivir

The Centre said studies had shown that Remdesivir didn't affect mortality rates.

Remdesivir is not a life-saving drug and its "unnecessary or irrational" use on Covid patients is unethical, the centre tweeted on Monday, amid massive demand for the medicine triggered by an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases across the country. Remdesivir is not a life saving drug in #COVID19. It is to be administered only in the hospital settings.#Unite2FightCoronapic.twitter.com/sdFzXfzwLO The Union Health Ministry said Remdesivir was an "experimental investigational drug" that had been granted emergency authorisation to be used only on moderately sick Covid patients on oxygen support under hospital settings. "It must never be administered in home settings," it warned. It added that studies had shown the drug didn't affect mortality rates.