A drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation for treating COVD-19 had been granted emergency approval by the Drugs Controller General of India. The drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) developed by 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, is to be used as adjunct therapy — that is, in addition to the primary treatment — for moderate to severe cases of COVID-19.

2-DG is based on a generic molecule, which means it is not covered by patents and any company or production facility can take up its manufacture. Available in the form of a powder which is to be had dissolved in water, the drug accumulates in virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth. While results of the Phase 3 clinical trials of the drug is yet to be available, phase 2 results showed that for patients who took this drug, the median time taken to normalise key vital signs was lower by 2.5 days. The patients who were part of the trial reduced the dependence on supplemental oxygens by the third day too, which is good news for the country which is facing critical oxygen shortage.

The hope that the quick and cheap availability of this indigenously developed drug could reduce the suffering of patients and ease the oxygen demand is what makes this story important.
 

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