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Northwell Health Hospital in New York, USA. USA, is testing an unusual medicine against Covid-19: an antacid used for heartburn that has famotidine in its formula.
The study is being carried out with 187 critically ill patients; The researchers intend to evaluate 1,117 people. The idea is to use a famotidine overdose. “If it works, we’ll know in a few weeks,” says Dr. Kevin Tracey, the researcher, in the journal Science.
It all started with the American doctor Michael Callahan, who was in China studying bird flu when the coronavirus epidemic began. He went to Wuhan and realized that most of the patients over 80 who survived the disease were poor.
Reviewing the files of 6,212 patients on Covid-19, he and a group of researchers found that many of the survivors suffered from chronic heartburn and frequently took famotidine instead of omeprazole, which is more common in the west and more expensive. Hospitalized people who had this health problem and were consuming the drug had an average mortality rate of 14%, compared to the statistic of 27% for the age group.
The statistics were stark and the result was not “significant,” but Callahan contacted colleagues to share his theories. Robert Malone, the head of a laboratory in Florida, was studying a viral enzyme that helped the microorganism replicate. In a computer model, famotidine interacted with the enzyme in a promising way.
After some people reported good results with the drug, Northwell decided to start the research, which is expected to show results in the coming weeks.
