By Carla K. Johnson -
The Associated Press
An investigation to search for existing drugs that can also be used to treat COVID-19 found a low-cost antidepressant that reduces hospitalizations among high-risk adult patients against the coronavirus.
The researchers decided to put the medication, which
is used for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder
, to the test for its known anti-inflammatory effects and because other smaller studies had shown promising signs of its use against the coronavirus.
The specialists have shared their results with the National Institutes of Health, which establish treatment guidelines in the country.
They also hope that the pill will be recommended by the World Health Organization.
[Merck says its COVID-19 pill reduces deaths and hospitalizations by 50%]
Particles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, in a 2020 electron microscope image, provided by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases - Rocky Mountain Laboratories.
AP
"If recommended by the WHO, it will be widely adopted," said study co-author Edward Mills of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
He added that
many poor countries have the drug readily available
.
"We hope it will save many lives," he said.
The pill, called Fluvoxamine,
would cost four dollars
to cover the entire time it takes for COVID-19 treatment.
By comparison, intravenous antibody treatments cost about $ 2,000, and Merck's experimental antiviral pill costs about $ 700.
Some experts predict that, over time,
several combined treatments will
be used
to fight the coronavirus
.
Researchers put the antidepressant to the test in a study of nearly 1,500 patients in Brazil who had recently been infected with coronavirus and were at risk of becoming seriously ill due to other pre-existing health problems, such as diabetes.
About half of these patients took the antidepressant at home for 10 days, and the rest received placebos or dummy pills.
They were followed for four weeks to see who ended up in the hospital or spent a lot of time in the ER when the hospitals were full.
[“You are not a horse. You are not a cow ”: what is ivermectin and why is it not recommended against COVID-19]
In the group that took the drug,
11% required hospitalization or an extended stay in the ER
, compared with 16% of those who took placebos.
Here's what's known about Merck's COVID-19 pill
Oct. 4, 202103: 24
The results, published Wednesday in the Lancet Global Health journal, were so compelling that the independent experts who supervised the study recommended stopping it early because the findings were clear.
The researchers
examined eight existing drugs
in their project to see if they could work against the coronavirus.
They are currently conducting clinical trials of one drug against hepatitis, but all the others, such as
metformin, hydroxychloroquine, and ivermectin, have not yielded results against COVID-19
.
[This Mexican laboratory produces an equine serum that promises to reduce deaths from COVID-19]
The low-cost generic depression pill and Merck's COVID-19 pill work differently and "may be complementary," said Paul Sax of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who did not participate in the study.
Earlier this month, Merck asked regulators in the US and Europe to license its antiviral.
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