Covid-19: BDR Pharma inks agreement with DRDO for production of 2-DG

BDR Pharma said on Monday it inked an agreement with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to distribute, manufacture and market the Covid-19 drug 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2-DG) in India. The pharmaceutical company will work with the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) of the DRDO for manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of 2-DG in the country.

BDR Pharma said that 2-DG will be available in a sachet in powdered form that can be consumed orally after dissolving it in water. Stressing that the drug would be priced competitively, the company said that the collaboration with the DRDO will address broader medical needs as it will widen the identification and development of Covid-19 therapy options.

“We are pleased to secure a license from the DRDO and add 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose to our COVID product offering. This arrangement aims to ensure that this drug reaches as many eligible Indian patients as possible who are suffering from the devastating pandemic. Our aim is to ramp up the availability of successful treatment and coordinate manufacturing so that there is no scarcity of drugs to give to people fighting the disease,” Dharmesh Shah, the chairman and managing director of BDR Pharmaceuticals said in a statement.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) in June approved the oral medication for emergency usage as an adjuvant therapy in mild to severe Covid-19 patients. The pharma company said that it has applied to the DCGI for restricted emergency-use authorisation to manufacture drug 2-DG for the treatment of Covid-19 patients in the country.

The DRDO recently signed agreements with four major Indian medicine producers for the development of 2-DG drugs, after it conducted clinical trials in partnership with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and the INMAS, a DRDO lab.

The DCGI permitted 2-DG phase III trials in November 2020 after receiving positive feedback from the Phase-II and Phase-IIb trials. 2-DG was discovered to hasten the recovery of Covid-19 patients in hospitals and to decrease the need for supplementary oxygen in Covid-19 patients.