Recently approved anti-COVID drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), developed by INMAS, a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is completely safe and will help patients recover faster, Dr Sudhir Chandna, Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) scientist, said on Sunday.

Dependence on oxygen of Covid-19 patients may reduce when 2-DG medicine is used along with standard care, as per data from a study by the INMAS-DRDO scientists. It also indicated that the recovery of patients was 2-3 days faster.

Data from Phase 3 trials of 2-DG showed that by the third day, freedom from oxygen dependence was seen in 42 per cent of patients as compared to 31 per cent of patients who were in standard care.

“During clinical trials, it has yielded an effective result in curing patients infected with COVID-19. The medicine has gone through clinical trials on around 110 patients in the second phase. In the third phase, it was tried on 220 patients. It has shown better efficacy in phase two itself as compared to the standard care,” Dr Chandna said.

“This data has indicated that oxygen dependence reduced in a better way when we use this medicine along with standard care,” he added.

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), Hyderabad, has partnered with the scientists’ team to produce the medicine on an industrial level in a few days. The DRDO, along with DRL started the clinical trials in April last year. The Phase 2 trials were conducted from May to October 2020.

On being asked about the price, Dr Chandna said, “The pricing of drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose will depend on the production and those factors are with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories who are our industry partners. As per our information and understanding, Dr. Reddy’s is trying that it comes out in few days.”