The indigenous Covid-19 drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is not connected with research done by Patanjali Ayurved, contrary to the claims made by the Swami Ramdev-promoted company, officials told to news agency PTI.
They said the drug, which promises to reduce oxygen dependency and hospital stay among Covid-19 patients, has been developed by the DRDO in collaboration with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL).
Officials said several research papers have been published on applications of the anti-cancer drug and that the DRDO’s contribution was to get it through a process of tests and validation that resulted in approvals for emergency use.
They said the trials were done by scientists and medical staff in collaboration with DRL and that Patanjali Ayurved has not sent across any claim or letter on the matter to the DRDO.
“There has been a research done on the drug in the past but the entire process of clinical trials, validating its effectiveness and getting all necessary approvals for emergency use has been done jointly by the DRDO and DRL,” said an official, who did not wish to be identified.
Yoga guru Ramdev’s close associate and Patanjali Ayurved CEO Acharya Balkrishna on Thursday said that “all those who are pointing fingers at Ayurveda should know that the newly-launched 2DG drug of DRDO also has its origins in Ayurveda and in research done by 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 added.
The anti-Covid drug developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has been priced at Rs 990 per sachet, news agency ANI reported on Friday citing officials.
Earlier, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had said that 10,000 sachets of the anti-Covid drug, known by the name 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), will be available in the market initially.
The price of DRDO’s 2DG anti-COVID 19 drug has been kept at Rs 990 per sachet by Dr Reddy’s lab. Govt hospitals, central and state govt would be provided the medicine at a discounted price: Govt officials pic.twitter.com/FEic70fSq5
— ANI (@ANI) May 28, 2021
