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The Bombay High court today has asked the state and central government to create a need based dynamic mechanism for availability of Amphotericin B, the drug which is used to treat mucormycosis for the State of Maharashtra.

Bench of Justice GS Kulkarni and Justice SP Deshmukh have also asked the state & central government to work in the manner in which the drug can be procured and to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure to be followed by the Nodal Officer to allocate the drug in case of need. 

“We want our officers to perform the best in case the situation arises of less supply & more demand.”, the Court said.

On the last date of hearing the court had also noted that the creation of such a mechanism would cater to a situation of easy and immediate availability of the drug at the hospitals where the drug was needed urgently for ailing patients. 

Appearing for the state Advocate General AA Kumbhakoni submitted that keeping into consideration the number of active cases of black fungus in the State, the state was not receiving adequate supply of the drug from the Centre.

Court: What is the position of supply of amphotericin B?

AG for State: Today we have stock of 5600 vials of liposomal amphotericin

Court: Is the supply sufficient for the treatment of patients?

AG for State: No it's not keeping into consideration the active cases.

Court: What is the supply that is being received today? How are you going about this?

AG for State: It's not being manufactured in the manner it should. 

With regards to the Court’s direction to the State Government of evolving a mechanism by appointing nodal officers in each of districts/places where there were a large number of patients suffering from Black Fungus to manage procuring such drugs from either the Central system or the State supplies, Advocate General for the State A.A.Kumbhakoni submitted that the state had appointed Nodal officers have for procuring tocilizumab and amphotericin B.  

ASG Anil Singh appearing for the Union of India submitted that the Centre has started to import the drug from USA based company Gilead and has also granted import licenses to two companies for import of liposomal amphotericin. He also submitted that the Centre has been clearing any application made for import within 2 days without taking into consideration the technicalities.

It was also his contention that efforts were being made by the Centre for procuring the relevant drug from all channels and also asked the State Government to give suggestions as to what all could be done by the Centre to increase the supply of the drugs used for treatment of mucormycosis. 

The court with regards to Advocate Nirav Marjadi’s submission for the need to create a dashboard highlighting information with regards to the availability of beds and drugs, has asked the State Government to create a dashboard for the entire state to avoid people running from pillar to post for availability of beds, drugs etc. 

“We want this kind of mechanism for the entire state. One person residing in Sholapur should know the status of a bed in Kolhapur. There should also be helpline numbers too.”, the Court said.