December 11, 2024 21:43 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Donald Trump vows to eliminate birthright citizenship after taking charge | No alliance with Congress in Delhi polls: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal | Bengaluru techie's suicide: Atul Subhash's wife and her family booked | Bengaluru techie's suicide: Atul Subhash's wife and her family booked | INDIA bloc to knock on Supreme Court's doors over alleged EVM manipulation during Maharashtra polls | 'Babri Masjid should be rebuilt in Bengal's Murshidabad': TMC MLA Humayun Kabir sparks row | Rajnath Singh calls on Russian Prez Vladimir Putin in Moscow, discusses bilateral defence cooperation | Police to investigate conspiracy angle in Mumbai bus accident that killed 7 | Mamata Banerjee should lead INDIA bloc: Lalu Prasad Yadav | Opposition moves no-confidence motion against VP Jagdeep Dhankar in RS
Covid-19
Image Credit: UNI

DCGI approves DRDO's anti-COVID oral drug '2-DG' for emergency use

| @indiablooms | May 08, 2021, at 11:57 pm

New Delhi/IBNS: The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved the emergency use of DRDO's anti-COVID-19 therapeutic oral drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) as an adjunct therapy in moderation to severe COVID-19 patients.

On May 1, the DCGI granted permission for 'Emergency Use' of this drug.

Being a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty in the country.

The drug comes in powder form in a sachet, which is to be 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. Its selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique, the DRDO said in a statement today.

After taking this drug, it was found that the patients have less dependence on oxygen while recovering from Coronavirus infection.

'The detailed data of phase-III clinical trial was presented to DCGI. In 2-DG arm, significantly higher proportion of patients improved symptomatically and became free from supplemental oxygen dependence (42percent vs 31 percent) by Day-3 in comparison to Standard of Care, indicating an early relief from Oxygen therapy/dependence,' the DRDO officials said.

In the ongoing second COVID-19 wave, 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.

This drug has been 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.

'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', the officials privy to this development said.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.