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Doctors have revealed that a common heartburn medication could be used to treat the coronavirus.
American researchers are testing whether famotidine, the active compound in the over-the-counter heartburn medication Pepcid, can alleviate the symptoms of the deadly disease.
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And there is currently an ongoing clinical trial in major New York hospitals to evaluate the effectiveness of the heartburn drug, in combination with the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, in patients with coronavirus.
It occurs when scientists have been struggling to find drugs to thwart the pandemic, with a death toll of 20,732 in the United Kingdom and 55,417 in the United States.
Famotidine has been available by prescription since 1987 in the UK, for the treatment of gastric problems.
According to the New York Post, more than 150 people are participating in the study so far, which began earlier this month.
It is being conducted by the Feinstein Institutes of Medical Research, the research arm of Northwell Health, according to a spokesperson for the hospital system.
The researchers hope that famotidine acts as a Covid-19 inhibitor, similar to the way certain drugs block the replication of HIV / AIDS.
‘Tremendous promise’
Patients in the study receive the heartburn medication directly into their veins (intravenously) along with hydroxychloroquine at Northwell North Shore University Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and Lenox Hill Hospital.
David Battinelli, Northwell’s vice president and chief medical officer, said the researchers initially wanted to try famotidine on their own.
However, with so many patients now being treated with hydroxychloroquine in the United States, they would not have had enough test subjects, they told Science Magazine.
Those taking the combination will be compared to a group taking only the antimalarial group and a control group.
Hydroxychloroquine, which is generally used to treat malaria, became the first drug approved to treat coronavirus in the United States. USA
The President of the United States said the drug was previously approved as a treatment for malaria and arthritis.
He said at a White House press conference on March 20 that he had now also shown “tremendous promise” in the Covid-19 treatment, and then said to the Americans, “What do you have to lose? Take it.”
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Despite this, preliminary results from some local studies found that hydroxychloroquine had no benefit.
Anecdotally, the heartburn medication is promising, Battinelli said, adding that he hopes to recruit up to 1,250 patients for the trial.
This is the first known study related to the coronavirus using the drug, the hospital spokesman said.
It is unclear when the results will be available.
Last week, an antiviral drug considered to be one of the best prospects for the treatment of Covid-19 failed in its first major trials.
Remdesivir had been described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the best hope for treating the coronavirus.
However, these hopes seem to fade after the agency prematurely released research that found the drug, originally developed to treat Ebola, was ineffective and even potentially harmful.
Test failed
It came to light after the drafts of the documents were published in error.
The documents showed that the Chinese study involved 237 patients, of whom 158 received remdesivir and 79 a placebo.
After 28 days of remdesivir treatment, there was no difference in symptoms or mortality between the two groups.
Meanwhile, the first British human trial of a coronavirus vaccine started when two volunteers were injected at Oxford last week.
Elisa Granato, a microbiologist, was the first to participate in the potentially groundbreaking study, followed by Edward O’Neill, a cancer researcher.
Scientists administered the first dose of a potential vaccine to one, while the other was given a meningitis vaccine used to compare in the trial.
Ms. Granato, who turned 32 yesterday, said she was “excited” to support the advancement of science.
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“Since I don’t study viruses, I felt a little useless these days, so I felt this is a very easy way to support the cause,” he told the BBC.
The research team is led by Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccination at the University of Oxford, who said she was “very optimistic it will work.”
Up to 1,102 participants aged 18 to 55 will be recruited from sites in Oxford, Southampton, London and Bristol.
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