Questions remain on DRDO’s COVID drug

Experts flag lack of published data on performance in human trials, history of drug’s use in cancer cure

A drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) may soon make its way to hospitals for treating moderate and severely ill patients, but independent experts say that from the information so far available, the drug's utility in COVID care has not been established. The lack of published data on its performance in human trials, opaqueness on whether the phase-3 trial objectively evaluated the benefit from, or lack of it, of the drug and the drug's history — of being an unapproved anti-cancer drug and therefore potentially able to harm healthy cells — some of the concerns contributing to the uncertainty, experts told The Hindu. 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose drug has historically been extensively tested for treating cancer but is so far an unapproved drug.