Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling said that scientists working on a drug trial for famotidine, a typical heartburn medication, have “a reasonable confidence” that the drug may make a difference within the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
“It’s one of many trials we’re doing, but we believe subsequent fortnight approximately we’ll have some potential results to be able to tell whether it’s working or not,” Dowling told CNBC on Tuesday. He said it’s too early to say definitively whether it works, but “our scientists have inexpensive confidence during this trial that it's getting to make a difference.”
Dowling said approximately 200 patients are enrolled within the trial, which uses ninefold the number of famotidine intravenously that somebody would usually fancy treat heartburn, as first reported by Science Magazine. Famotidine could also be a standard ingredient found in Pepcid, a heartburn medication.
The study, which is underway at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of the newest York-based health system Northwell Health, was kept covert to form surely supply for the trial. Health officials are concerned that there could be a rush on the medication in stores, preventing people with heartburn or stomach ulcers from getting access to the drug.
“It’s very difficult to urge at the moment; I feel Amazon is sold out,” Dowling said. “Because once the word gets out that this is often something that might help, obviously there was a run on the supply, but we do have enough to undertake to the trial and appear the hay successfully.”
The trial is one of six to seven underway at the hospital, Dowling said. Northwell is additionally studying whether Regeneron’s sarilumab, a drug for arthritis, and Gilead Sciences’ Remdesivir could also help treat coronavirus patients. There aren't any proven therapeutics or vaccines for Covid-19.
Dr. Kevin Tracey, president of Feinstein Institutes, told Science Magazine that hype surrounding the potential of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat Covid-19 made him wary of sparking premature enthusiasm about famotidine.
On Friday, researchers announced they curtail a study testing anti-malaria drug chloroquine as a possible treatment for Covid-19 after some patients developed irregular heartbeats and nearly twenty-four died after taking doses daily.
Scientists say the findings, published in JAMA Network Open, should prompt some extent of skepticism from the overall public toward enthusiastic claims and perhaps “serve to curb the exuberant use” of the drug, which has been touted by President Donald Trump as a possible “game-changer” within the fight against the coronavirus.
Other drugs, like Gilead’s Remdesivir, also can fail to hurry the event of patients with Covid-19 or prevent them from dying, according to results from a long-awaited clinical trial conducted in China. Gilead, however, said the data suggests a “potential benefit” for the sickest Covid-19 patients.