DRDO: Our anti-Covid drug 2DG is not based on Patanjali's research

By Anish Kumar | First Published May 29, 2021, 11:00 AM IST

"What we have made has nothing to do with what Patanjali has done," DRDO sources told Asianet Newsable.

A day after media reports claimed that the Defence Research and Development Organisation's anti-Covid 19 drug 2DG is based on Patanjali's research, the DRDO has trashed the claim and said that its drug has been jointly developed with Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy's Lab.

Top DRDO sources told Asianet Newsable, "2DG is an old molecule. So many people and organisation have conducted research on it. But to develop it for the treatment of Covid-19 patients, you need to go through a long process. There were three trials and approval was given by the Drug Controller General of India and after one or two more processes it got the approval for use."

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"What we have made has nothing to do with what Patanjali has done," the sources said.

When asked if DRDO had received any communication from Patanjali, the DRDO official said, "We have not received any such claim."

On Friday, Patanjali Ayurved CEO and Baba Ramdev's close associate Acharya Balkrishna had claimed the 2DG drug has origin in Ayurved and the research was conducted by the Patanjali.

"We at Patanjali have done a lot of work on Covid in the past few months and research on the compound used in the 2DG drug was first done by our scientists. We have had 10 papers regarding Covid published in international journals while 15 more are in pipeline," he claimed.

A few weeks back, the DGCI had given approval for emergency use as an adjunct therapy in moderate to severe Covid patients.

The approval came at a time when the country was hit by the unprecedented second wave of the pandemic and people were facing a shortage of oxygen nationwide.

The defence ministry had said that "the drug is expected to save precious lives due to the mechanism of its operation in the infected cells. This also reduces the hospital stay of COVID-19 patients."

After the release of 10,000 doses of 2DG drug, the demand has gone up but the supply has remained limited. Keeping the demand in mind, the Centre was thinking of allowing 3-4 more firms to produce the drug. Dr Reddy's has fixed its price at Rs 990 per sachet.

However, it would be given to the government hospitals, central and state governments at a discounted price.

NOTE: Asianet News humbly requests everyone to wear masks, sanitize, maintain social distancing and get vaccinated as soon as eligible. Together we can and will break the chain #ANCares #IndiaFightsCorona

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