Given a choice, save the youth: HC on shortage of black fungus drug

New Delhi: Stressing that if given a choice, the youth of the country which is its future should be saved first instead of the elderly population, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to draw up a policy with regard to the priority administration of the Black Fungus drug which is currently in huge shortage in the country.

The court, presided by a division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh, also raised doubts over the Central government's status report filed with regard to the quantity of drugs, both Liposomal and Amphotericin B, being imported from several countries. During the last

hearing, the bench had directed the Centre to explain how it came up with the figure of 2.3 lakh vials of drugs being procured from abroad.

After Centre's standing counsel, advocate Kirtiman Singh, presented the report, Justice Singh remarked, "Are you kidding me? You say 2.3 lakhs but there is no clarity on figure. You don't know, the ministry doesn't know, the ministry doesn't know what is the figure you have".

Justice Singh further questioned the government on how it arrived at the figure of 2.3 lakhs. Further pulling up the government, he asked: "You identify a company, you go to that company, they say they can't provide but that figure is added in 2.3 lakhs? I'm not getting this at all. Is this a notional figure?"

The court expressed grievance at the fact that despite being given a week's time to file a status report on this aspect, the government hasn't given a break-up of the figure. "Please see your status report and tell us are you satisfied with this? Don't you understand the crisis?...You are completely non committal" the court orally remarked, while telling advocate Singh to provide a clear picture of how much drug did India procure out of 2.3 lakh vials and "not be vague".

Meanwhile, advocate Singh too accepted the fact that there was a shortage of the drug and that a situation will come where Liposomal and Amphotericin B would not be available at all. The court was informed that there was a 66% shortage of the drug in the country at present.

In response, the bench stated that a policy in this regard will have to be drawn up by a body like ICMR which will decide how the drug will be administered and who will get priority treatment. The bench further said that "there has to be some certainty" and that if a patient is given two vials per day, the government should keep in mind what will happen to the patient if only two vials are administered.

Referring to the country's vaccination policy, Justice Sanghi noted that the youth of the country, "who are its future" should be prioritized and not the elderly population "who have lived their lives". "We are on our way out now, we saw how the second wave affected the youth more. Yet the vaccine policy didn't prioritize them. Your 80-year-olds aren't going to carry this country forward. They've lived their lives," Justice Sanghi observed.

Delhi government counsel Rahul Mehra told the bench that as of Tuesday, the patient load for the infection was 601 and over the course of two days, 40 patients have been added.

While directing ICMR and Centre to come up with a road map on the drug administration, the court also noted that some persons at high positions and holding constitutional offices should be kept in mind while preparing the policy.