KUWAIT: The health ministry has authorized the drug bamlanivimab for emergency use to treat mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 in adult patients and children over 12 years old who have risk factors that make them more vulnerable.

Assistant Undersecretary for Drug and Food Control Affairs Dr Abdullah Al-Bader said in a press statement yesterday that the last emergency use of baricitinib was licensed to be used as an added drug to remdesivir to treat COVID-19 cases in adult patients and children over two years old who are receiving hospital treatment with ventilators.

Dr Bader underlined the eagerness of the drug and food control sector at the health ministry to provide the best and latest approved treatments for COVID-19 patients in Kuwait. Kuwait is the third country in the world after the US and Canada that has authorized bamlanivimab, and is one of the first countries worldwide to license baricitinib after these drugs were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which allows these vital treatments to be available to patients faster, he explained. - KUNA