As India fights back the second wave of the Chinese virus, the first batch of the revolutionary 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be released by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today (17 May).
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) 8 May had approved the anti-COVID-19 drug for emergency use and hospitals will start receiving the supplies of the drug from Monday (17 May) with the first batch comprising of around 10,000 doses to be supplied to various hospitals in Delhi.
An anti-Covid-19 therapeutic application of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) has been developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences laboratory (INMAS), a lab of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad.
Clinical trial results have been exceptionally good and as per reports this new life-saving drug helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.
However, what makes the drug unique is that it prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production as it accumulates in the virus-infected cells and the selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique.
A higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in Covid patients and the best news is since it is a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty in the country.
This is the most non-evasive Covid-19 drug as it comes in powder form in a sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water.
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