Nipah medicine row: Action after receiving expert panel report, says Keralam Health Minister

Keralam Health Minister K. Muraleedharan on Friday said the government would take further action after receiving a report from an expert committee probing the allegations that expired doses of Remdesivir were administered to Nipah patients in previous years.

However, critical care specialist Dr A S Anoop Kumar, who treated several Nipah patients at a private hospital, said that patients who died due to Nipah were not administered doses of Remdesivir.

Former Health Minister Veena George said that allegations raised by Mr. Muraleedharan are suspicious as the medicine has an expiry period of 2.5 to 5 years.

In a reply to a submission by Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan in the Assembly on Thursday, Mr. Muraleedharan said that Remdesivir procured in 2021 had an expiry date of May 2023 but might have been administered to patients admitted to Kozhikode Medical College till 2025.

Speaking to reporters in Kozhikode, Mr. Muraleedharan said the information presented to the Assembly was based on reports from responsible officials of the Health Department and that he would not make further comments until the expert committee submitted its findings.

The government would investigate whether the deaths of Nipah patients were linked to the administration of expired medicine and whether other patients who received the drug had suffered any adverse effects, Mr Muraleedharan said.

“There are several doubts regarding the medicine, including whether it was administered after its expiry date. We will investigate and take a decision,” he said.

The Minister clarified that there were no concerns about the quality or efficacy of Remdesivir itself and that the issue under investigation was whether expired doses had been administered to patients.

Recalling the procurement of the drug during the Nipah outbreak after the UDF government came to power, he said efforts to source it from different parts of the country had failed as the available stocks in Mumbai had expired.

Subsequently, the Kerala Medical Services Corporation Limited (KMSCL) informed the government that the medicine was available in Bahrain, following which it was procured within 48 hours, he said.

He said patients who received the medicine within its validity period had recovered and asserted that the controversy concerned its expiry date rather than the drug’s efficacy.

Mr. Muraleedharan said the expert committee headed by Dr R Aravind, head of the Infectious Diseases department at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, would conduct an impartial examination without any preconceived conclusions.

The probe would also examine how the medicine was procured and supplied, the role of intermediaries and the functioning of KMSCL.

The government would investigate whether any agents were involved in the procurement process, he said.

The Minister also said the Kozhikode Medical College superintendent had informed him that the packaging of the Remdesivir medicine listed an expiry date but did not mention its manufacturing date. Both details are normally required on medicine packaging, and the discrepancy would be examined, he said.

“Further decisions on the issues would be taken after receiving the expert committee’s findings,” he said.