<span style="color: #222222;">The Centre has allocated additional 45 thousand vials of Tocilizumab to States and UTs to meet the increased demand. It will ensure sufficient availability of Tocilizumab for COVID patients and augment the government's efforts to fight the pandemic. This was announced by Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda today.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Tocilizumab is not manufactured in India and is sourced from a Swiss pharmaceutical company. Till about March this year, the demand of Tocilizumab by various hospitals across the country was adequately being met until the sudden spike of COVID cases started from April and the demand for the drug went up drastically.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">A commercial quantity of 45,000 vials have been imported into India today and they have been allocated to States and UTs. The State Governments have been advised to widely publicize the mechanism of allotment of this drug in their areas so that the needy patients and private hospitals can approach concerned authorities if they require the drug. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The states have also been advised to take all measures to prevent hoarding and black marketing and ensure that the drug is used very judiciously and strictly as per the National clinical management protocol for COVID-19 patients.</span><br />''  <br />