New Delhi: Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Shekher Mande, on Wednesday said the Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) judgement on the utilisation of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) should be trusted. The ICMR had said that HCQ has no major side-effects in the treatment of coronavirus.
“We should trust the judgement of ICMR. ICMR people are exceptionally well qualified in this. If they say it should be continued we should trust their judgement and will continue this drug,” Mande told ANI.
His statement comes after the WHO, on Sunday, announced a temporary suspension of clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, after an online medical journal The Lancet found that there is an increased risk of mortality by 34 per cent and a 137 per cent increased risk of serious heart arrhythmias.
“All it can do is to undertake a clinical trial. At this moment, the hydroxychloroquine is not on our radar to conduct any clinical trial. So CSIR ever has to advise any particular trial of drug formulation, we will do that based on scientific evidence. But we have not generated any scientific on hydroxychloroquine on our own,” he added.
“The Lancet study is based on hospital registry data. That is not a randomised clinical trial. It is only an analysis of hospital registers around the world. But still, in some people, the conditions have worsened, and the WHO temporarily halted the use of the drug. I am sure the WHO will take considered call in the coming time,” Mande said.
(Inputs from ANI)
