DRDO's anti-COVID drug to be released on May 17, check details

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New Delhi: The first batch of anti-COVID drug 2-DG, developed by the DRDO, will be released on Monday by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) has approved the oral drug for emergency use as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe COVID-19 patients, the defence ministry said earlier this month.

The officials said the first batch of the drug will be released by the two ministers at an event at the headquarters of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), according to news agency PTI.

The ministry, on May 8, said the clinical trials of the drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), showed that it helps in a faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.

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.

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.

Meanwhile, as many as 60,000 doses of the second batch of Russia's COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V on Sunday landed at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here, Dr Reddy's Laboratories said on Sunday.