2-DG drug, a game-changer in India’s Covid management

The drug will come in powder sachets, which is to be taken orally by dissolving it in water.

 

New Delhi: The 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) drug, developed for the treatment of Covid-19 infected patients by the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, will be launched next week. The results of the clinical trials have shown that the drug assists in the faster recovery of patients and reduce their supplemental oxygen dependence.

According to a DRDO official, the first batch will consist of 10,000 doses. The drug will be given as an additional therapy to Covid-19 patients or can be used as an alternative treatment. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has given emergency use approval to it.

The drug will come in powder sachets, which is to be taken orally by dissolving it in water. The sachet’s price is estimated to be in the Rs 500-Rs 600 range. The defence ministry says 2-DG will be of immense benefit to Covid-19 patients. The test results suggest that a high proportion of Covid-19 patients treated with 2-DG showed negative RT-PCR reports. According to DRDO, the patients treated with 2-DG showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints.

“The 2-DG drug, like glucose, spread throughout the body, reaches the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and destroys the protein’s energy production. The drug also works on virus infection spread into lungs which help us to decrease patients dependability on oxygen,” says Dr Sudhir Chandana, DRDO Project Director and Scientist of 2-DG.

In April 2020, scientist of DRDO and INMAS conducted various experiments and concluded that 2-DG is effective against the SARC-CoV-2 virus. Based on these results, the DCGI gave a nod to conduct Phase-2 clinical between May and October 2020.

The results of these trials further confirmed the scientists’ claim. The drug was further tested in phase 2a and phase 2b trial, which were conducted on 110 patients. The trials were conducted at 27 hospitals across India, including hospitals in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka.

After the success of phase 2 trials, permission was granted for phase-3 trials. These trials were conducted on 220 patients. The results were positive.

“During clinical trials, it has yielded an effective result in curing patients infected with Covid-19. The drug has shown better efficacy in phase two itself as compared to the standard care,” says Dr Sudhir Chandana.

The DRDO stated that the drug can easily be produced in India and made available in abundance for treatment.

Karnataka Health Minister Dr K. Sudhakar visited the DRDO campus.

The scientists there briefed him about the drug which could be a game-changer in the Covid-19 battle.

“Dr K. Sudhakar was briefed by scientists about the ongoing efforts at the premier research organisation to find a solution to tackle the pandemic,” informed a release by the state government.

Currently, the country’s health care system is under immense pressuring owing to the daily surge in Covid-19 cases. There is a shortage of beds and oxygen cylinder in hospitals. The introduction of 2-DG during in treatment of Covid-19 patients can help in speedy recovery.