Expired remdesivir may have been administered to patients at Kozhikode Government Medical College after the stock’s May 2023 expiry date, prompting the Kerala government to order a detailed investigation into whether the drug contributed to Nipah deaths or caused adverse effects.
Health minister K Muraleedharan told the Kerala Assembly on Thursday that remdesivir, an antiviral medicine approved for Covid-19 treatment, was administered at the hospital to patients, including those infected with Nipah, in 2024 and 2025. The minister said a medical board would examine the use of the stock and assess its possible impact on patients.
The board will be headed by Dr Aravind Reghukumar, head of infectious diseases at Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram. The Directorate of Medical Education and Directorate of Health Services have also been instructed to collect details of all patients who received remdesivir during the period under review.
The investigation follows hospital records showing that 102 vials were used during 2023-24, 34 during 2024-25 and 10 during 2025-26. The remdesivir stock in question was procured by Kerala Medical Services Corporation Ltd through its Karunya division on June 3, 2021. KMSCL bought 3,000 vials for Rs 42 lakh, with the stock carrying an expiry date of May 30, 2023.
The records have raised concerns that some of the vials used between 2023 and 2025 may have come from the expired stock. However, the minister also clarified that 50 vials recorded as used in 2026-27 had been brought from Bahrain on June 12, 2026, for treating a Nipah patient. The government’s probe is expected to establish which batches were administered to patients and whether the expired stock was used after its expiry.
The issue has acquired particular significance because of the state’s Nipah case-fatality figures cited in the Assembly. Kerala recorded six Nipah cases in 2023, of which two were fatal. Both cases reported in 2024 resulted in deaths, while two of the three cases reported in 2025 were fatal. The sole case reported in 2026 recovered.
The government has not established that expired remdesivir caused any death or adverse health outcome. That question has been specifically assigned to the medical board, which will review patient records and the treatment administered. The investigation’s findings will determine the next steps on the hospital’s drug procurement, storage and inventory controls.
