Shortage of black fungus drug: 'Must make the cruel choice to give it to 80-yr-old or 35-yr-old'

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday while hearing pleas related to the shortage of Amphotericin-B a drug used to treat mucormycosis (commonly dubbed black fungus), asked both the Centre and Delhi government to put in place a policy to decide how best to ration the drug in such times of crisis.

It said the government must make this "cruel choice" of whom to give the drug to in such times — an 80-year-old or a 35-year-old — and it cannot shrug this responsibility off.

The observation was made by a division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh, while hearing a batch of petitions regarding the Covid-19 management in the capital, which further stated that there should be an appropriate policy on priority distribution of the drug among patients and the responsibility should not be left to the doctors treating them.

The court orally remarked: "If a person is 80-years-old and the other is 35-years-old...if we have to make a cruel choice, you have to take (a decision). Will you give it to an 80-year-old or to the one who has two children to support?...You will have to exclude (a particular section)..."

During the hearing, Justice Singh told the counsels of both the Centre and Delhi government that today the situation is such that, there are no drugs available while there is a huge gap (between demand and supply) present. "You cannot push responsibility off your shoulders," the bench said.

Justice Singh orally remarked, "Government has to take a call and say unless there is not sufficient drugs, we will not give it to a specific group of people...you will have to get that policy in place".

It was further stated that giving two vials of the drug to patients when the requirement was that of six vials was not reasonable and that the black fungus infection was affecting persons across age groups. "You have to prioritize. There is scarcity...you'll have to make that list. If you require six vials to beat the fungus, you can't say make do with two vials…" the court said.

Central government standing counsel Kirtiman Singh however told the bench that such a policy, if framed, will be applicable across states and not just in Delhi, hence several states may not want such a policy. Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, for the Delhi government, meanwhile argued that whatever policy in this regard is framed by the Central government will be followed.

Due to lack of time during the hearing, the court told both the governments that the matter will be adjourned to Tuesday (today) when they will come back with instructions on the matter.