DCGI approves anti-COVID drug developed by DRDO for emergency use
Coronavirus India: The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) on Saturday granted permission for the emergency use of therapeutic application of drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe COVID-19 patients.
DRDO stated that being a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty.
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The anti-COVID-19 therapeutic application of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) has been developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad.
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According to the information, the clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.
The higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in COVID patients, DRDo stated, adding that the drug will be of immense benefit to the people suffering from COVID-19.
In efficacy trends, the patients treated with 2-DG showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints. A significantly favourable trend (2.5 days difference) was seen in terms of the median time to achieving normalisation of specific vital signs parameters when compared to SoC.
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, it said.
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