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Three leading hospitals to try sepsis drug on critical COVID-19 patients

Three leading institutes AIIMS Bhopal, AIIMS Delhi and PGIMER Chandigarh are going to administer a commercial drug which is used to treat sepsis on severe coronavirus patients. 50 coronavirus patients in intensive care units at these three centres would be given a small dose of Sepsivac 0.3 ml in the form of an intra-dermal injection.

They are expecting that the drug would reduce mortality in critically-ill COVID-19 patients and stimulate speedy recovery. It is also anticipated to protect close contacts of coronavirus patients and healthcare workers by improving their innate response by natural defense mechanism of the body, hence preventing them from getting the disease.

The directorate general of health services and Central Drugs Standard Control Organization had selected these institutions for clinical trials of the drug. Sepsivac is used for gram-negative sepsis and can reduce mortality rate by 50%. It was developed in association under a 2007 public private partnership between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical firm Cadilla Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

CSIR is facilitating the trial research which would continue for six months. Ram Vishwakarma, CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrated Medicine, director, told TOI that the drug controls the immune system of the body and inhibits the cytokine storm resulting in reduced mortality and speedy recovery. Seeing the similarities between clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients and gram-negative sepsis, CSIR, have initiated a randomized clinical trial to assess the efficacy of the drug for decreasing deaths in critically-ill coronavirus patients.

Another CSIR scientist, said that the results of these trials will come in a few months. Final use of the immunomodulator would depend on the results of these trials and following approval by the regulator.

Dr Inderpaul Sehgal at PGIMER, Dr Sarman Singh at AIIMS Bhopal and Dr Anant Mohan at AIIMS Delhi are be principal investigators of the clinical trials.

Dr Nusrat Shafiq, member of ethics committee, PGIMER Chandigarh said that they had already received the protocol for the trial and are speeding up the procedure.

Source: ET Healthworld