Psoriasis injection Itolizumab, which is used to cure skin ailment, has been approved for limited use in treating coronavirus, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has said. India's drug controller has okayed emergency use of Psoriasis injection for treating COVID-19 patients with moderate to severe acute respiratory distress.

Considering the unmet medical needs to treat COVID-19, Drugs Controller General of India Dr. VG Somani approved monoclonal antibody injection Itolizumab for restricted emergency use for the treatment of 'cytokine' release syndrome in moderate to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome patients due to COVID-19.

"The approval was given after its clinical trials on COVID-19 patients in India was found satisfactory by the expert committee comprising pulmonologists, pharmacologists and medicine experts from AIIMS, among others, for treatment of cytokine release syndrome," an official told PTI.

"It is already an approved drug of Biocon for treating psoriasis for the last many years," the official said.

Written informed consent of each patient is required before the use of this drug, he said.

With a record single-day increase of 27,114 cases, India's COVID-19 tally zoomed past the eight-lakh mark on Saturday, just four days after crossing the seven-lakh post, according to health ministry data. This was the eighth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases in the country increased by more than 22,000. According to data updated at 8 am, the death toll climbed to 22,123 with 519 people succumbing to the disease in 24 hours.

While the total coronavirus caseload surged to 8,20,916 on Saturday, there were 2,83,407 active cases and 5,15,385 recoveries. The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners. Thus, around 62.78 percent of patients have recovered so far," an official said. Of the 519 new deaths reported, 226 are from Maharashtra, 64 from Tamil Nadu, 57 from Karnataka, 42 from Delhi, 27 from Uttar Pradesh and 26 from West Bengal. Andhra Pradesh reported 15 fatalities, Gujarat 14, Telangana eight and Rajasthan six.

Assam, and Jammu and Kashmir reported five deaths, followed by Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Punjab with four deaths each from, Haryana and Puducherry three fatalities each while two persons have succumbed to the viral infection in Chhattisgarh.

PTI