Hyderabad Doctor Proposes Indian Drug To Fight Covid

A doctor from Hyderabad has written a letter to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) about an Indian drug which he claims cures Covid-19, and urged permission for clinical trials.

Dr Pradyut Waghray, Professor and HOD of Pulmonary Medicine at SVS Medical College of Mahbubnagar, and Senior Consultant Pulmonologist at Apollo Hospitals (Jubilee Hills) in the city, has claimed that the drug would be very effective in curing Covid-19.

In his letter he said that patients with co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension, chronic lung disease, cardiac disease etc were more prone to Covid-19 complications because of low innate immunity in their Lungs. Pidotimod was an immunomodulator and immunostimulant which increased the innate immunity of the lungs in Covid-19 patients, by acting at the level of macrophages and dentritic cells and increasing the activity of the natural killer cells which kill the virus-infected cells, he said.

"Hence I feel that this drug will definitely be useful in this vulnerable group of patients. It should be given to the close, primary contacts of Covid-19 patients and also in the early stages of Covid-19 infections in these vulnerable group of patients," he said.