Coronavirus: India’s drug regulator approves DRDO’s anti-Covid drug for emergency use

India’s drug regulator DCGI has approved a new drug developed by DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) for emergency use on coronavirus patients. The drug, developed by the defence reserach body in association with Dr Reddys’ Laboratories Ltd, comes in powder form in a sachet and 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.

An anti-Covid-19 therapeutic application of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) , the drug received clearance after clinical trial results showed that a molecule present in the drug helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.

“Clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence. Higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in Covid patients. The drug will be of immense benefit to the people suffering from Covid-19 in the ongoing pandemic,” DRDO said in a release

In efficacy trends, the patients treated with 2-DG showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints, the DRDO said.

“In the ongoing second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, 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 and burdens the health infrastructure of the country,’’ the defence reserach body added.

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The country is grappling with the onslaught of a massive COVID-19 wave with a record over 401,078 lakh new infections and 4187 deaths being reported in a span of 24 hours, as per the Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.