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Swedish doctor: “As Kajsa Warg said: we take what we have”
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A common drug for gout should be tested against covid-19.
2,500 patients from the UK are included in the study.
– What we have learned is that we do not know what will work, so it is just a test, says Johan Brun, physician and senior advisor to research pharmaceutical companies, LIF.
An anti-inflammatory drug normally used to treat gout should be tried as a possible treatment for covid-19.
The test is being carried out by British researchers as part of the huge Recovery project, the world’s largest clinical trial for possible treatment methods for those already infected with COVID-19. 2,500 randomly selected patients will be treated with the drug colchicine. In Sweden, colchicine is used against gout, as it reduces inflammation in the joints and can be used both in acute attacks of gout and to prevent it.
Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / TT
“It is cheap”
– Colchicine is an attractive drug to investigate in the study because it is a drug that we know well, it is cheap and has a good availability, says Peter Horby, a professor at the University of Oxford and one of those leading the study, to The Guardian .
Peter Horby also led the study, which resulted in another drug, dexamethasone, being given the green light for use in COVID-19 patients in Sweden this summer. Horby and his team were able to show that dexamethasone reduced the number of deaths among patients with severe covid. Dexamethasone, a common cortisone, was shown to alleviate the lung infection from which COVID patients often die.
A feature of dexamethasone is its anti-inflammatory properties, as is colchicine, a drug for gout. Recently, in September, colchicine was also shown to reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease; its anti-inflammatory properties delayed the development of atherosclerosis.
Not surprised
Johan Brun is a physician and senior medical advisor at Research Pharmaceutical Companies, LIF. He closely monitors ongoing research on covid-19 drugs and vaccines. He is not surprised that colchicine is now being tried after the success of dexamethasone. A large part of the search for treatments for Covid-19 is based on the use of existing drugs. If you find the right one, it is much cheaper and can be used much faster, compared to the development of completely new preparations.
– The pandemic will end if you try new drugs. That is why he now takes what he has. It’s like Kajsa Warg said: We take what we have.
Photo: Gunilla Lundstrom
“Try what we have,” says Johan Brun, physician and senior advisor to Research Pharmaceutical Companies, LIF.
“It has an effect”
Do you think that sounds like something worth taking a closer look at?
– What we have learned is that we do not know what will work, so we are only testing everything that has some kind of anti-inflammatory effect. And it has, of course, says Johan Brun.
– There is a basic idea that “yes, we have inflammation” and “yes, this drug works against inflammation”.
PODD UK Vaccine Launch Report
Aftonbladet Daily, with our reporter Petter Larsson in London.
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