Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh): 2DG (2-Deoxy-D-glucose) Covid drug formulated by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), is touted as a 'lifesaver' for the country, which is battling the second wave of the Coronavirus epidemic. It has been claimed that this drug is very effective on Covid patients.
What if we said that this drug used against COVID19 was prepared in the DRDE lab in Gwalior about 25 years ago? It sounds a bit strange to hear, but it is a reality.
Dr. Karuna Shankar Pandey, a retired senior scientist of Gwalior DRDE, who was part of the team that prepared this drug, about 25 years ago, in a special conversation with ETV Bharat, revealed many interesting facts.
India used to buy the medicine from the USA
Dr. Karuna Shankar Pandey said that before 1995, India used to import medicines via INMAS from America, and there were issues in getting this medicine from the US. It was then Professor Dr. Vinay Jain, then director of INMAS, who had put forward the issue in the meeting.
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Former President of the country Dr APJ Abdul Kalam who used to be the Director-General of the DRDO spoke to the Director of DRDE RB Swamy to build this molecule in India. It was then that the project was assigned to Dr. Karuna Shankar Pandey.
Abdul Kalam played a significant role
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam after holding extensive discussions with Dr. Vinay Jain of the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) spoke to the DRDE Director Swamy about the project. During the time, Germany had handed the project of developing the drug for the treatment of brain tumors to INMAS.
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This led to the US impose a ban on 23 DRDO labs in the US on 9 January 1998. After the ban, the supply of this molecule from American labs was stopped. This led to the development of the molecule indigenously.
How the drug was developed in Gwalior
Work started on this molecule under the leadership of senior scientist Dr Karuna Shankar Pandey after the DRDE had obtained approval from the drug controller with the approval of ICMR. In February 1998, the process to patent the drug began, only to be finally approved by 2002.
Since then, this drug was proven to be effective in the treatment of cancer. The patent team for making this molecule included Dr. Karuna Shankar Pandey, Dr. Shashi Nath Dubey, Dr. Ramamurthy Vednath Swamy and INMAS' Dr. Rakesh Kumar Sharma and Dr. BS Dwarkanath.
