A commonly prescribed pill – approved more than 13 years ago by the Food and Drug Administration for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder – is showing 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 observed was that of all patients who received fluvoxamine, none of them had a serious COVID infection that affected their lungs or respiratory condition,” said Dr. Caline Mattar, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Washington in St. Louis who helped conduct an initial drug test 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, giving patients a two-week course of the drug.
“I feel much better: I didn’t have a fever; I didn’t have the chills; the clogging passed,” said Eduardo Veliz, of Los Angeles, who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, and agreed to be part of the larger study of fluvoxamine. .
Veliz told I-Team that he started to feel much better after five days in the test. “My taste is back,” said Veliz.
Fluvoxamine – which costs about $ 10 for a two-week supply – has recently shown real results in preventing serious COVID diseases.
Last November, at the Golden Gate Fields Racecourse in Berkeley, 200 workers tested positive for COVID-19. The track doctor, Dr. David Seftel, read about the initial success of fluvoxamine and offered it to infected workers.
On Monday, Dr. Seftel published the promising results of his treatment in the Oxford Academic magazine. Sixty-five workers took fluvoxamine for two weeks and none developed severe symptoms of COVID-19, and none had to be hospitalized.
But of the 48 employees who refused the drug, 60% developed symptoms and 12.5% had to be hospitalized.
Some seniors received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but many are concerned about receiving a second dose in time. Joel Grover reported on NBC4 News on Tuesday, January 26, 2021.
The researchers say there are great advantages to testing FDA-approved drugs on COVID patients, also known as “reuse” of the drugs.
“They have been around for some time, we know they are safe, they are available and they tend to be relatively cheaper,” said Dr. Mattar of the University of Washington.
Intensive doctors who treat patients with COVID are thrilled with the prospect of having more drugs that could keep people out of hospitals overloaded.
“I am hopefully optimistic about fluvoxamine … now, this needs to be carried forward in larger studies for real patients,” said Dr. Raj Dasgupta of USC Keck Hospital
Real patients, like Eduardo Veliz, from Los Angeles, are also optimistic, although he is unsure whether he is taking fluvoxamine or the placebo given to some study participants.
“Whatever I am carrying is helping me,” Veliz told I-Team.
“Our goal is to help patients who are initially well enough to stay home and prevent them from getting sick enough to be hospitalized,” said Dr. Mattar to NBC4.
COVID patients who want to be part of a larger study with fluvoxamine can learn more at StopCovidTrial.wustl.edu