DRDO Oral Drug 2-DG Approved For Emergency Use For COVID-19 Treatment

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved and granted permission of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) for emergency use of the therapeutic application.

The drug is to be used as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe COVID-19 patients.

The drug being a generic molecule and an analogue of the glucose molecule, can be easily produced and made available in plenty for treatment of COVID-19, said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The COVID-19 drug has been developed by the DRDO Lab Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences in a collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which is an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company located in Hyderabad, Telangana.

The clinical trial of the drug has shown that this molecule helps in a much faster recovery of the COVID-19 patients who are hospitalised. It also reduces the supplemental oxygen dependence, i.e. the need for oxygen cylinders in COVID patients.

A higher proportion of COVID-19 patients who were treated with the 2-DG drug have shown a negative result in the RT-PCR test. According to DRDO, the 2-DG drug has also been found to be more efficient as it shows a faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints.

The drug comes in a sachet and is in powder form, which can be taken orally by dissolving it in water. According to DRCO, the 2-DG accumulates in the virus-infected cells of the body and prevents the growth of the virus by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. The drug hampers the multiplication of the virus in the body and in turn makes the recovery rate of a patient higher.

Before the approval of 2-DG, a number of other COVID-19 drugs had also been approved for treating patients in the country. Roche India announced on May 5 that it has received approval for use of an antibody cocktail on COVID-19 patients in India.

The Casirivimab and Imdevimab received the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) by the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO).

Another drug known as Fabiflu, which is the first repurposed drug for COVID-19 treatment got the permit from the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI) in June 2020. The drug is being developed by the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical Glenmark.

In the month of April this year, the Indian pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila announced that its drug Virafin Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b (PegIFN) has got emergency use approval by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). The drug is approved for treating moderate coronavirus infections in adult patients.

Virafin is said to make the treatment more convenient for the COVID-19 patients after a single subcutaneous dose (injected below the skin).