In a recent development, a COVID-19 patient, who was administered the new 2-DG (2-Deoxy-D-Glucose), died on Sunday night due to post-COVID complications.
The patient, a young male, was undergoing treatment at the Jorhat Medical College Hospital (JMCH) for COVID-19. He was the first person in the state to be administered with the new drug.
The anti-COVID drug is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories. The drug comes in powder form in a sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water.
The patient reportedly procured the drug from his uncle who works at the DRDO in Hyderabad as a senior scientist. He later dispatched it JMCH and requested to be administered.
According to Superintendent of JMCH Dr. Purnima Baruah, the patient had been administered the drug since May 22 and had tested negative in RT-PCR test after completion of the doses.
He was then shifted to the general ICU from COVID ICU but on Sunday night, he died of post-COVID complications, she said.
DRDO Chairman Dr G Satheesh Reddy said the drug had gone through complete trials across 30 hospitals, on a large number of patients.
Earlier last month, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan released the first batch of 10,000 doses of the drug.
