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The study will look at whether the drug could reduce the risk of blood clots in people diagnosed with coronavirus, Reuters reported on Friday.
The scientists behind the RECOVERY clinical trial, which looks at a variety of potential treatments for COVID-19, said they would include aspirin, commonly used for its blood-thinning properties, in the tests.
“There is clear reason to believe that this (aspirin) might be beneficial, safe, inexpensive, and widely available,” said Peter Horby, a clinical trial investigator.
Patients infected with the new coronavirus are at increased risk of blood clots due to hyper-reactive platelets (platelets), cells that play an important role in blood clotting and stopping bleeding. Aspirin is an antiplatelet agent and may reduce the risk of clots, the RECOVERY website said Friday.
At least 2,000 patients will randomly receive 150 milligrams of aspirin a day, along with regular treatment. The data obtained from these patients will be compared with that of at least 2,000 other subjects who will receive standard treatment for COVID-19, according to the site.
Medicine for the masses
Based on previous findings, low daily doses of aspirin reduce the risk of certain types of cancer. Due to the property of thinning the blood, aspirin increases the risk of internal bleeding, and too high a dose over a prolonged period of time has been associated with kidney damage, Reuters notes.
Other treatments tested in the RECOVERY clinical trial include the common antibiotic azithromycin and Regeneron’s synthetic antibody cocktail, which was used to treat United States President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 symptoms.
Unlike Gildes Remdesivir, which was approved as a treatment for COVID-19 in the United States but showed poor results in a large World Health Organization (WHO) clinical study, aspirin is a generic drug, which means it is a much cheaper treatment.
The RECOVERY clinical trial was the first to show that dexamethasone, a steroid that is also cheap and widely available, could save the lives of some people who are seriously ill with COVID-19. It also showed that hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug promoted at one time by President Trump, had no beneficial effect in treating COVID-19 patients.
