After failure of chloroquine, is colchicine a new miracle drug in the fight against the coronavirus epidemic?
This is the conclusion of a new Canadian study.
Conducted by the Montreal Heart Institute (ICM) since March 2020 on a panel of 4,488 patients worldwide, the first results of this study called Colcorona reveal that these small tablets would be effective in reducing complications related to Covid- 19.
An "important hope
"
A press release, published on Friday January 22 on the IMC website, indicates that in patients "with a proven diagnosis of Covid-19, colchicine has led to reductions in hospitalizations of 25%, in the need for mechanical ventilation of 50 %, and deaths of 44%.
"
"This major scientific discovery makes colchicine the first oral drug in the world that could treat patients in the pre-hospital phase," the statement continued.
For Dr Jean-Claude Tardif, director of the ICM and main author of the study, this anti-inflammatory constitutes "important hope".
"Finally, we provide part of a significant solution to reduce hospitalizations and possibly reduce congestion in the hospital system," he told AFP.
The "toxic dose is very close to the therapeutic dose
"
Available at low cost in pharmacies, colchicine is mainly used as a treatment for gout, a form of arthritis.
In France, it cannot be dispensed without a prescription.
Its use may be accompanied by undesirable effects.
"We must be careful," warns Pascal Legrand, pharmacist in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.
“These are drugs said to have a narrow therapeutic margin, which means that the toxic dose is very close to the therapeutic dose.
In case of overdose, it can lead to poisoning which can sometimes be fatal.
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The data revealed by Colcorona are for the moment to be taken with caution, the entire study has not yet been made public.