A commonly prescribed pill – approved by the Food and Drug Administration for depression and obsessive compulsive disorder more than 13 years ago – has shown initial success in preventing people infected with COVID-19 from developing severe symptoms and being hospitalized.
The drug Fluvoxamine, sold under the brand name Luvox, appears to prevent inflammation in the lungs of people infected with COVID-19, which can be fatal.
“What we noticed was that all of the patients who received Fluvoxamine, none of them had a serious COVID infection that affected their lungs or their respiratory status,” said Dr. Caline Mattar, an infectious disease researcher at Washington University in St. Louis who helped conducted a first trial with the drug last fall.
Now Washington University, along with Northwestern University, University of Minnesota, University of Washington and University of Utah, is conducting a larger study with fluvoxamine, in which patients receive a two-week course of the drug.
“I feel a lot better: I haven’t had a fever; I haven’t had any chills; the stuffiness has disappeared,” said Eduardo Veliz of Los Angeles, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, and agreed. . to be part of the larger Fluvoxamine study.
Veliz told the I-Team that he started to feel much better after five days in the trial. “My taste has returned,” said Veliz.
Fluvoxamine – which costs about $ 10 for a two-week supply – recently showed real-world results in the prevention of serious COVID diseases.
Last November, 200 workers tested positive for COVID-19 at the Golden Gate Fields Racetrack in Berkeley. The job doctor, Dr. David Seftel, had read about Fluvoxamine’s initial success and offered it to the infected workers.
On Monday, Dr. Seftel published the promising results of his treatment in the Oxford Academic journal. Sixty-five workers took fluvoxamine for two weeks, and none of them developed severe symptoms of COVID-19, and none of them required hospitalization.
But of the 48 workers who refused the drug, 60% developed symptoms and 12.5% had to be hospitalized.
Some seniors have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but many are concerned about getting a second dose on time. Joel Grover reported Tuesday, January 26, 2021 on NBC4 News.
Researchers say that testing existing FDA-approved drugs on COVID patients has significant benefits, known as ‘repurposing’ the drugs.
“They’ve been around for quite some time, we know they’re safe, they’re available, they’re usually relatively cheaper,” said Dr. Mattar of Washington University.
Critical care physicians treating COVID patients are excited about the prospect of having more drugs that can keep people out of congested hospitals.
“Hopefully I am optimistic about Fluvoxamine … now this should be carried over into larger studies of actual patients,” said Dr. Raj Dasgupta of USC’s Keck Hospital.
Actual patients, such as Eduardo Veliz of Los Angeles, are also optimistic, even though he is not sure whether he is taking fluvoxamine or the placebo given to some of the trial participants.
“Whatever I take has helped me,” Veliz told I-Team.
“Our goal is to help patients who are initially healthy enough to be at home and prevent them from getting sick enough to be hospitalized,” said Dr. Mattar to NBC4.
COVID patients who wish to participate in the larger Fluvoxamine study can find more information at StopCovidTrial.wustl.edu