Anti-Covid drug by DRDO receives approval for emergency use

NEW DELHI: Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), on Saturday, May 8 approved an oral drug for emergency use in moderate and severe cases of coronavirus infection in India. This drug has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL). The Ministry of Defence (MoD), Government of India, said that in the clinical trials of the drug, it was found that the drug, named 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), helps in faster recovery of hospitalized patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence of the patient.

2-DG drug comes in powder form in sachets and is to be taken orally by dissolving in water. The drug molecule accumulates in the virus infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping virus from synthesizing and producing energy.

The statement by MoD added that higher proportion of COVID-19 positive patients tested RT-PCR negative after getting treated with 2-DG. Hence, this drug will be of immense benefit to the people suffering from coronavirus infections. Moreover, being a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty in the country.

The Phase-II clinical trial of the 2-DG drug in COVID-19 patients had begun in May 2020 and phase-III trial had started in November 2020. In terms of efficacy trends, the patients administered with 2-DG showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints. Additionally, a significant positive difference was seen in terms of the median time to achieve normalization of specific vital signs parameters when compared to SoC. 

The approval for the drug has come at a time when the nation has been struggling to grapple with a record breaking wave of the coronavirus pandemic.