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Laurus Labs Ltd on Friday announced that it has received the license from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to manufacture and market its Covid drug, 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2-DG).

2-DG has been given emergency approval by the Drug Controller General of India for use on Covid-19 patients in India.

Laurus Labs, a leading research and development-driven and fully integrated pharmaceutical and biotech company, has already applied to the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation for emergency use authorisation (EUA) for 2-DG.

An adjunct therapy in moderate to severe Covid-19 cases, 2-DG was developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of DRDO, in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

In order to ramp up the production of 2-DG, DRDO had last month invited Expressions of Interest (EoIs) for transferring technology to Indian pharmaceutical industries for production.

It had stated that only up to 15 industries will be given ToT on their capabilities, technical handholding capability of the DRDO, and on first come first served basis.