Gurgaon: The Haryana government plans to test the efficiency of an anti-Covid drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on patients with mild infection.
Experts at PGIMS, Rohtak said they have sent a proposal regarding this trial to the Drugs Controller General of India on Saturday, seeking permission.
DRDO has developed the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2DG) in collaboration with pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and it has been approved for emergency use.
The drug is currently being used as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe coronavirus patients.
It comes in powder form in a sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water.
The drug accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping its synthesis and energy production.
2DG’s selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique.
“The plan is to give the drug to mild patients to see how far it prevents virus growth, if they get any relief and how efficient it is for them,” said Dr Dhruv Chaudhary, nodal officer for the Covid-19 response in Haryana.
Permission to start the trial will have to come from the Drugs Controller General of India.
The trial will also explore how mild patients respond to the drug.
“The sample size and timeline will be decided once we get approval,” said Dr Chaudhary.
Clinical trial results have shown that 2DG helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients.
According to the efficacy trends, a significantly high proportion of patients treated with the drug improved symptomatically and became free from supplemental oxygen dependence.
This triggered the idea to conduct a test on mild cases with a view to reduce the severity of the infection, officials said.