PremiumThe second batch of anti-COVID drug 2-DG, developed by the DRDO, will be released tomorrow by the manufacturer Dr Reddy’s Lab.
According to DRDO officials,"Second batch of 10,000 sachets of DRDO-developed 2DG drug to be issued tomorrow by the manufacturer Dr Reddy’s Lab. The drug would be available commercially now," news agency ANI reported.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) has approved the oral drug for emergency use as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe coronavirus patients, the defence ministry said earlier this month.
The approval of the drug has come at a time when India is grappling with a record-breaking wave of the coronavirus pandemic that has stretched the country''s healthcare infrastructure to its limit.
"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 its operation in the infected cells. This also reduces the hospital stay of COVID-19 patients," the defence ministry had said.
The anti-COVID therapeutic application of the drug has been developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a leading laboratory of the DRDO, in collaboration with Dr Reddy''s Laboratories (DRL) in Hyderabad.
The drug comes in a powder form in a sachet and is taken orally by dissolving it in water, the ministry said.
In efficacy trends, it said, patients treated with 2-DG showed a faster symptomatic cure than the standard of care (SoC) on various endpoints.
From the first batch of the medicine, satchets were distributed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Director-General of the Armed Forces Medical Services while some were kept as reserve.
A higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG have shown RT-PCR negative conversion in COVID patients. The drug will be of immense benefit to the people suffering from COVID in the ongoing pandemic.
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