‘Know-it-all’ Sumanth Raman does it again, stokes fear about DRDO’s 2-DG drug by questioning its efficacy

‘Dr’. Sumanth Raman, who participates in television news debates and is known for offering opinions on everything under the sun has questioned the efficacy of the 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

Sumanth, who had earlier tried to stoke fears about made-in-India vaccine COVAXIN has now called the DRDO developed drug ‘unproven stuff’.

This is not the first time that Sumanth Raman has resorted to fear mongering about vaccines. In April, when Tamil actor Vivekh passed away due to cardiac arrest, Sumanth Raman tried to stoke fears over corona vaccination linking the actor suffering a heart attack with him getting vaccinated for COVID.

This narrative was also peddled by the Tamil media as a result of which many in the state have been hesitant of taking the vaccine.

Before that, he had questioned the efficacy of COVAXIN and resorted to fear mongering about the vaccine saying that its ‘phase 3 trials’ haven’t been out.

The drug has been developed by the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) lab, Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, in collaboration with Hyderabad based pharmaceutical major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. The drug can be used to treat moderate and severe cases of Wuhan virus.

It has been cleared by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for emergency use in the treatment of Covid-19 patients earlier last week.

DRDO in a statement had earlier said that during the clinical trial, the drug helped in faster recovery of hospitalized patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.

During the 2-DG trials, the drug showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) for patients on various endpoints in the efficacy trends.

Many on social media lashed out at Sumanth Raman saying that he is peddling unwarranted fear about the drug.

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