What is the News?
Recently, the Drugs Controller General of India(DCGI) has approved an anti-COVID drug named 2-deoxy-D-glucose(2-DG). The Defence Research and Development Organization(DRDO) developed this medicine for emergency use.
However, independent experts have raised questions about the efficacy of the drug.
About 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG):
- 2-DG drug has been developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS)- a lab of DRDO in collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories(DRL).
- The drug comes in powder form in the sachet. One has to take it orally by dissolving the powder in water.
Working Mechanism of the drug:
- The basic mechanism of the drug involves inhibiting glycolysis or one of the ways in which cells break down glucose for energy.
- This approach can starve and kill cancer cells, but in theory, work in inhibiting virus cells too, that are almost entirely dependent on glycolysis for replication.
Questions over 2-deoxy-D-glucose: Independent experts have raised questions over the utility of the drug based on the following reasons:
- Firstly, lack of published data on its performance in human trials,
- Secondly, questions on whether the phase-3 trial objectively evaluated the benefits of the drug and its side effects
- Thirdly, the drug’s history of being an unapproved anti-cancer drug.
Source: The Hindu
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