Things you need to know about DRDO’s anti-Covid drug 2-DG

New Delhi: The first batch of anti-Covid drug 2-DG will be released by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh via video-conferencing on Monday. The DRDO’s Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences in collaboration with Hyderabad-based pharma giant Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has developed the drug. Almost 10,000 doses of the drug will be issued to hospitals in the national capital on Monday.

About Anti-Covid Drug 2-DG:

1. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had passed the anti-COVID oral drug for emergency use as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe coronavirus patients.
2. The clinical trials of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) had shown that it supported in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and decreased supplemental oxygen dependence.
3. The 2-DG will comes in powder form in the sachet and will be taken orally by dissolving it in water.
4. The drug 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,” the defence ministry had said.
5. About efficacy, it said, patients treated with 2-DG recorded a faster symptomatic cure than the standard of care (SoC) on various endpoints.
6. The consent of the drug has come at a time when India is fighting a record-breaking wave of the coronavirus pandemic that has stretched the country’s healthcare infrastructure to its limit.

In the meantime, two Air India cargo aircraft arrived in Bengaluru with 34,200kg of zeolite imported by the DRDO to make medical oxygen for treating Covid patients, an official said on Sunday. “The two aircraft carrying zeolite from Rome arrived as the first consignment of the key component,” a DRDO official told IANS. Zeolites are ‘molecular sieves’ comprising silicon, aluminium, and oxygen among others are used as a raw material to make industrial and medical oxygen.