First Covid patient treated with ‘antibody cocktail’ discharged; Here’s where to get it and its price per dose

The drug cocktail has clocked reduced hospitalisation and death by upto 70 per cent

India has striated administering Roche’s antibody cocktail treatment to Covid-19 patients and the first patients to receive it, an 84-year-old in Haryana has also been discharged after undergoing critical care at Medanta Hospital. The procedure gained popularity after it was used to treat former United States President Donald Trump. Since then it has been used extensively in the US and Europe.

Roche received approvals for the emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) from the Central Drugs Organisation (CDSO) early in Mya when India was facing a tsunami of Covid cases, more than four lakh a day. The therapy will help patients get treatment before the condition worsens and turns high risk.

The antibody cocktail comprising of drugs Casirivimab and Imdevimab will be used to treat Covid-19 patients with mild and moderate symptoms before the condition gets worse and there comes a need to be hospitalised. The therapy works best when administered within seven days of contracting the infection when the virus replicates and multiplies. The drug blocks the pathogen from entering the cells of the patients from where it derives nutrition to multiply.

The drug cocktail has clocked reduced hospitalisation and death by 70 per cent. The antibody cocktail drug was effective against treating the new B.1.617.2 variant as well.

How Covid patients can get Roche’s antibody cocktail drug

In India, the drug will be marketed by Cipla. To procure the drug, hospital, pharmaceuticals, healthcare centres, both public and private can place orders or enquiries with their nearest Cipla distributor. Once made available in the market, patients can procure it through a prescription by a registered medical practitioner.

Dosage and price for the cocktail drug

Each patient’s dose comprises of 1200 mg (600 mg of Casirivimab and 600 mg of Imdevimab) and is priced at Rs 59,750 inclusive all taxes. Each pack can treat two patients and is priced at Rs 1,19,500 inclusive of all taxes.

If opened for the first patient’s dose, a vial needs to be utilized for the second patient within 48 hours on store at 2 to 8 degree Celcius.

Covid patients who should avoid the cocktail therapy

Patients who have already been hospitalised with severe Covid symptoms are not advised to not take the cocktail drug. It is also not recommended for those who need an increase in baseline oxygen flow rate, have a depleting SPO2 count, and which chronic oxygen therapy due to comorbidities.

The drug can cause anaphylaxis- a kind of allergic reaction. Hence it should be administered by health care workers and with access to immediate access to medication to mediate the infusion reaction.

Patients after getting the dose need to be kept under observation for at least an hour after being administered and 15 to 30 minutes after the subcutaneous injection.