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 underwent complete trials and conducted trials across 30 hospitals and on many patients.
The first batch of 10,000 doses of 2DG medicine would be launched early next week, informed DRDO officials to ANI. The drug is in powder form in a sachet, which is consumed orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production.
In the second wave of the pandemic, many patients are facing severe oxygen dependency and require hospitalisation. This drug is expected to save lives due to the mechanism of operation of the drug in infected cells.
