Covid-19 drug 2-DG, manufactured by Indian Defense Agency DRDO, is being released today. As many as 10,000 doses are released in the first instalment. This drug is going to be manufactured in large quantities in Hyderabad soon with the help of Dr Reddy’s Labs.
The drug has been developed by DRDO’s Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) in collaboration with Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.
The drug operates on the principle of ‘cheat the cheater’.
“Any virus, once enters inside the body, makes its own copies by cheating human cells and takes their protein to multiply itself. The thought process by Indian scientists was simple.”
“For every doubling of virus-cell, it needs glucose. So, the medicine is simply a ‘pseudo’ glucose that the multiplying virus intakes but actually, this drug renders it unable to multiply,” an official said.
If the drug works as expected, the Covid-19 will turn into a minor illness. It has already worked wonderfully in clinical trials.