Clinical trial tests look at heartburn remedy against coronavirus after reports from China Molecular modeling suggests famotidine could make a difference.

There’s hope that an over-the-counter heartburn medication can help with the biggest crisis of our time! Science Magazine is reporting on a clinical trial of famotidine, the active compound in the over-the-counter heartburn medication, Pepcid.

On April 7, COVID-19 patients at Northwell Health in the New York City area began receiving famotidine intravenously, at nearly 10x the standard heartburn dose.

Interestingly, the Northwell researchers kept this study a secret, unlike many other tests they were pursuing, so they could stockpile the drug before other hospitals, or even the federal government, not to mention the general public, could preempt them. The article quotes Kevin Tracey, a former neurosurgeon in charge of the hospital system’s research, as saying, “If we talked about this to the wrong people or too soon, the drug supply would be gone.”

The test

As of April 25, 187 COVID-19 patients in critical status, including many on ventilators, have been enrolled in the trial, which is shooting for 1,174 patients. Information out of China and molecular modeling results indicate famotidine binds a critical enzyme in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and could help.

Tracey, cautious not to spark premature enthusiasm as was done with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine — the antimalarial drugs initially touted by President Trump and others before conclusive data was available — has been tight-lipped about famotidine’s prospects until more data is available. “If it does work, we’ll know in a few weeks,” he old Science.

A respected infectious disease doctor from Massachusetts General Hospital, Michael Callahan, was the first to call attention to the drug in the U.S.

Callahan has spent time in disease hot zones around the world, including the 2003 outbreak of another coronavirus disease, SARS, in Hong Kong. Mos recently, he was in Nanjing, China, working on an avian flu project, and as the COVID-19 epidemic began exploding in Wuhan, he went to the epicenter to attempt to help. He noted that the virus was killing up to 20% of patients 80 years old and older.

And all patients, regardless of age, with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension were struggling. Callahan and his Chinese colleagues were curious about why many of the survivors tended to be poor. “Why are these elderly peasants not dying?” he wondered.

The trial

So they dug in. In reviewing thousands of records, the doctors saw a pattern: many of the survivors had been suffering from chronic heartburn and were taking famotidine, rather than more-expensive omeprazole, commonly known as Prilosec, which is the preferred drug both in the United States and among wealthier Chinese.

The analysis was crude, but there was enough evidence for Callahan to want to explore the hypothesis back in the States since famotidine is a low-cost, generally safe drug.

Callahan connected with Tracey, the Northwell Health resesarcher, about running a double-blind randomized study, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to Science, anecdotal evidence has encouraged the Northwell researchers, however the actual clinical trial data is weeks away. “We still don’t know if it will work or not,” Tracey said.

If famotidine is shown to be efficacious, and adults with COVID-19 are recommend the dosage of 200mg (10, 20mg tablets) a day for 5 days, that means an adult will need 50, 20mg pills.

If you’re going to run out to the drugstore, we urge you to get what you need for yourself and your family, but please don’t go overboard and hoard it – more will not make you better, and we’re all in this together! PLEASE don’t turn this into another toilet paper incident!