New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday released the first batch of Anti-COVID drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The drug has been developed by DRDO’s Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy said that DRDO and Dr Reddy’s lab had gone through the complete trials and conducted trials across 30 hospitals and on a large number of patients.
The first batch of 10,000 doses of 2DG medicine would be launched early next week, informed DRDO officials to ANI on Friday.
The drug comes in powder form in a sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. Its selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique.
In the ongoing second COVID-19 wave, a large number of patients are facing severe oxygen dependency and need hospitalisation. The drug is expected to save precious lives due to the mechanism of operation of the drug in infected cells. This also reduces the hospital stay of COVID-19 patients.
‘2-DG work against various strains’
DRDO chairperson Dr G Satheesh Reddy also said Monday that the new anti-COVID drug 2-DG should work against various strains of the COVID-19 virus.
“The drug 2DG developed by us should work against the various strains of the COVID-19 virus,” told Reddy, adding that the organisation was hoping to ramp up production of the drug up to one lakh sachet per day by the first week of June.
“From the first week of June, we are hoping to ramp up the production of the drug as the process to develop it takes around one month. We are hoping to increase the number of sachets production to one lakh per day,” Reddy stated.
Also read: DCGI approves anti-Covid drug developed by DRDO for emergency use