BDR Pharma inks license agreement with DRDO to produce Covid drug 2-DG

New Delhi: BDR Pharma on Monday said it has inked a licensing pact with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to manufacture, distribute, and market COVID-19 drug 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2-DG) in the country.

BDR Pharma has inked a pact with the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE) and the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) of the DRDO for manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of 2-DG in the country.

Last month, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had approved the oral medication for emergency usage as adjuvant therapy in mild to severe COVID-19 patients.

"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," BDR Pharmaceuticals CMD Dharmesh Shah said in a statement.

The company thinks that by widening and deepening the identification and development of COVID-19 therapy options, this collaboration can address more unmet medical needs, he added.

The product would be priced competitively and will be available in powder form in a sachet that can be consumed orally after being dissolved in water, the drug maker noted.

The Mumbai-based company noted that it has already applied to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for restricted emergency use authorisation to manufacture Drug 2-DG to treat COVID-19 patients in India.

For the development of 2-DG drugs, the DRDO has recently signed agreements with four major Indian generic medicine producers.

The DRDE had produced 2-DG and the clinical trials were carried out in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories by the INMAS, a DRDO lab.

After receiving positive responses in Phase-II and Phase-IIb trials, DCGI permitted 2-DG phase-III trials in November 2020.

The Phase-II trial, which lasted from December 2020 to March 2021, enrolled 220 patients.

The medicine was discovered to speed up the recovery of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and to lessen the need for supplementary oxygen in COVID-19 patients.