Omicron havoc: Doctors recommending Paracetamol to treat Omicron
Business World

Omicron havoc: Doctors recommending Paracetamol to treat majority of Omicron positive patients with mild symptoms

Health Biotech. Remdesivir
Health Biotech. Remdesivir

Doctors are prescribing Paracetamol to Omicron patients under the age of 60 years. Presently, some of the companies that manufacture Paracetamol in India are Hetero Labs, Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Jubilant Life Sciences, Zydus Cadila Healthcare, Biocon’s Cadila, and Health Biotech. Remdesivir played a key role during the first wave to obstruct the stage of replication, a phase when coronavirus creates copies of itself.  

Whenever we are introduced to a disease that is constantly evolving, treatments and methods evolve with it. With the latest studies proving that the new variant is more transmissible than the Delta variant, experts say that Omicron may see a sharp rise in the coming weeks, noting that the variant is already in the community transmission stage despite the decline in hospitalization rate in major cities.

Doctors are prescribing Paracetamol to Omicron patients under the age of 60 years. Along with that, the new-age antiviral treatment drug like Molnupiravir has also come into play, which is acting as a chain terminator to fight Coronavirus, reducing hospitalization by 30 percent.

In 2020, the Indian pharma industry sough emergency approval to manufacture Remdesivir under the National Clinical Management Protocol for Covid-19 to treat Covid patients. According to the US National Institutes of Health Research, the drug reduces the time of recovery from 15 to 10 days on average.

During the peak of the second wave, India witnessed the shortfall of the drug due to the shortage in production. By the end of April 2021, the demand for Remdesivir skyrocketed, due to the rapid surge in the Covid-19 cases across the country.

The tier-2, 3, and 4 cities were majorly hit due to the poor distribution network. The Indian companies then signed a voluntary licensing agreement with the American pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that holds the patent for the product to manufacture Remdesivir in India.

A senior doctor at LNJP said that those infected with the Omicron are being treated with paracetamol tablets and multi-vitamins only. “We didn’t feel the need to give them any other medicine,” he added.

Presently, some of the companies that manufacture Paracetamol in India are Hetero Labs, Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Jubilant Life Sciences, Zydus Cadila Healthcare, Biocon’s Cadila, and Health Biotech. Remdesivir played a key role during the first wave to obstruct the stage of replication, a phase when coronavirus creates copies of itself. The anti-viral drug was developed in 2014 to treat the Ebola virus disease.

It is also used for treatment against the hepatitis C virus and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Remdesivir reduces viral replication by preventing the virus from copying itself in the human cells.

The soaring demand for critical drugs during the second wave has certainly prepared the pharma giants in India to fight a potentially similar situation in an efficient manner.

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