Dr Reddy's charges DRDO's 2DG anti-COVID 19 drug at Rs 990 per sachet

New Delhi, May 28: The price of DRDO's 2DG anti-COVID 19 drug has been kept at Rs 990 per sachet by Dr Reddy's lab. However, the pharma company would provide the drug to the government hospitals, central and state government at a discounted price.

The anti-COVID-19 therapeutic application of 2-DG drug has been developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a leading laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) in Hyderabad.

DRDO anti-covid drug: Dosage and how it works

The drug comes in a powder form in a sachet and is taken orally by dissolving it in water. The drug accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. The drug will stop the virus from multiplying.

Will DRDO's 2DG medicine work against COVID variants?

According to the clinical trials, the drug is supposed to arrest any variant as a multiplying virus, irrespective of variant, will need food and thus will get trapped by the drug. Will DRDO's 2-DG drug be a game changer? DRDO's anti-covid drug is seen as a game changer as it helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence.

"In 2-DG arm, significantly higher proportion of patients improved symptomatically and became free from supplemental oxygen dependence (42% vs 31%) by Day-3 in comparison to SoC, indicating an early relief from oxygen therapy/dependence. The similar trend was observed in patients aged more than 65 years," the DRDO said.

This comes as a boon amid the devastating second COVID-19 wave, where a large number of patients are facing severe oxygen dependency and need hospitalisation. A higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in COVID patients. In efficacy trends, the patients treated with 2-DG showed faster symptomatic cure than Standard of Care (SoC) on various endpoints, the DRDO said.