India Approves Unique COVID-19 Treatment

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved on May 8, 2021, the application of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences, a lab of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories.

Clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in the faster recovery of hospitalized patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence. A higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in COVID patients.

In Phase-II trials conducted from May to October 2020, 2-DG was found safe in COVID-19 patients and showed significant improvement in their recovery. A significantly favorable trend (2.5 days difference) was seen in terms of the median time to achieve normalization of specific vital signs parameters compared to SoC.

Based on successful results, DCGI further permitted the Phase-III clinical trials in November 2020.

2-DG comes in powder form in a sachet, 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. 2-DG selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique.