Question : Social media videos touting the effectiveness of 2-DG - is their any evidence for these claim?

Dr Anoop Misra’s Reply
2 Deoxy Glucose is not a new drug, has been tried in brain tumour years back. Its working is distinctive, as calorie mimetic, in other words, mimics glucose but does not provide calories. In highly stressed virus infected cells, glucose is needed in higher amounts, and this drug competes with it to de-energize viruses. Whatever data are available, it looks to be working in patients with COVID19, however, these data need more numbers and clearer research output.

EXPLAINER
2 DG is a repurposed drug which was launched as COVID-19 antiviral drug by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories developed together, 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG), received emergency use approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on May 1.
The lack of published data on 2-DG’s performance in human trials, transparency on whether the Phase-III trial objectively evaluated the benefit from, are questions surrounding the drug. But DRDO says approval for emergency use is given to the drug for saving lives in such a pandemic situation, which cannot wait the lengthy peer review process.