NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: Three premier institutes — AIIMS Delhi , AIIMS Bhopal and PGIMER Chandigarh — will now administer a commercial drug used to treat sepsis, a blood infection, on severe Covid-19 patients. A total of 50 Covid-19 patients in intensive care units at the three centres will be given a tiny dose of Sepsivac — 0.3 ml — in the form of an intra-dermal injection.The drug is expected to reduce mortality in critically-ill Covid-19 patients and promote faster recovery. It is also expected to protect close contacts of Covid-19 patients and healthcare staff by boosting their innate response — natural defence mechanism of the body — and thereby preventing them from acquiring the disease.The institutions were selected for clinical trials of the drug by the directorate general of health services and Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation. Sepsivac has been a game changer for gram-negative sepsis, reducing mortality rate by 50%. It was developed jointly under a 2007 public private partnership between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical firm Cadilla Pharmaceuticals Ltd.“This drug will be used for improvement in organ dysfunction and reducing overall mortality associated with Covid-19 in critically ill patients,” said Dr V G Somani, drugs controller general (India), the central licensing authority for drugs, said in a statement.CSIR, which is facilitating the trial research, said the study would continue for six months. “The drug modulates the immune system of the body and thereby inhibits the cytokine storm leading to reduced mortality and faster recovery. Looking at similarities between clinical characteristics of patients suffering from Covid-19 and gram-negative sepsis, we at CSIR, are initiating a randomised clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of the drug for reducing deaths in critically-ill Covid-19 patients,” Ram Vishwakarma , CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrated Medicine, director, told TOI.Another CSIR scientist, who did not want to be named, said, “The results of all these trials will come in a few months. Final use of the immunomodulator will depend on the results of those trials and subsequent approval by the regulator.”Dr Inderpaul Sehgal at PGIMER, Dr Sarman Singh at AIIMS Bhopal and Dr Anant Mohan at AIIMS Delhi will be principal investigators of the trials.“We have received the protocol for this trial and we are speeding up the process,” said Dr Nusrat Shafiq, member of ethics committee, PGIMER Chandigarh.(With inputs from Vishwa Mohan)