India’s DRDO to launch anti-Covid drug next week

The first batch of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) drug for the treatment of moderate to severe Covid-19 cases will be launched next week, India’s Defense Research and Development Organization has said.

“The first batch of 10,000 doses of 2-DG medicine for the treatment of Covid-19 infected patients would be launched early next week and will be given to patients,” a DRDO official was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

“The drug manufacturers are working on ramping up the production of the medicine for future use. The drug has been developed by a team of DRDO scientists including Dr Anant Narayan Bhatt,” the official added.

The drug has been developed by the DRDO lab Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.

It will be given as an adjunct therapy or an alternative treatment, and its purpose is to assist the primary treatment. It comes in powder form in sachets, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved 2-DG for emergency use early last week.

“Clinical trials have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalized patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence,” read a statement by DRDO upon the drug getting DCGI nod.

According to DRDO, the patients treated with 2-DG showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints in the efficacy trends. (source: livemint.com)

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