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$15 drug gets COVID patients off oxygen support in under week – study:
Fourteen out of 15 severe COVID-19 patients who were treated in an investigator-initiated interventional open-label clinical study of the drug TriCor (fenofibrate)[*] didn't require oxygen support within a week of treatment and were released from the hospital, according to the results of a new Hebrew University of Jerusalem study.
Fenofibrate is an FDA-approved oral medication. The results were published on Researchsquare.com and are currently under peer review.
Specifically, the team that was led by HU's Prof. Yaakov Nahmias carried out the study at Israel's Barzilai Medical Center in coordination with the hospital's head of the Infectious Disease Unit, Prof. Shlomo Maayan, and with support from Abbott Laboratories.
[...] The 15 treated patients all had pneumonia and required oxygen support. They were also older with multiple comorbidities, ranging from diabetes and obesity to high blood pressure.
"The results were dramatic," Nahmias told The Jerusalem Post. "Progressive inflammation markers, which are the hallmark of deteriorative COVID-19, dropped within 48 hours of treatment. Moreover, 14 of the 15 severe patients didn't require oxygen support within a week of treatment." The 15th patient was off oxygen within 10 days.
When looking at the data on other similar severe patients, less than 30% of them on average are removed from oxygen support within a week. In other words, fenofibrate could dramatically shorten the treatment time for severe COVID patients.
"We know these kinds of patients deteriorate really fast, develop a cytokine storm in five to seven days and that it can take weeks to treat them and for them to get better," Nahmias said. "We gave these patients fenofibrate and the study shows inflammation dropped incredibly fast. They did not seem to develop a cytokine storm[**] at all."
Cytokine storms are aggressive inflammatory responses to illness.
[*] Fenofibrate entries on MedlinePlus and Wikipedia.
[**] Cytokine storm on Wikipedia.
Journal Reference:
Yaakov Nahmias, Avner Ehrlich, Konstantinos Ioannidis, et al. Metabolic Regulation of SARS-CoV-2 Infection, (DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-770724/v1)
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Saturday August 28 2021, @09:04PM (7 children)
Given the therapeutic crap fest online (both suppression and tin foil hat snake oil stuff), it sounds like a small blinded and control group study is in order if nothing else to head of another round of BS. And since the claim is that it helps late stage a trial shouldn't have the concerns a drug thought to work only at onset of symptoms would.
As is, this only suggests further study vs proving any efficacy. If there is a real signal simple trial will find one as big as reported easily. Or rule it out... (well - aside from the conspiracy hobby folks)
(Score: 5, Informative) by Spamalope on Saturday August 28 2021, @09:12PM (1 child)
Posting to add: "The professor is now involved with a series of Phase III studies being carried out in South America, the United States and Israel. Those studies are placebo-controlled and double-blind."
I'll be awaiting those results, hopefully they've got something.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Saturday August 28 2021, @10:44PM
14/15 is pretty strong. We will be following his career with great interest...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 29 2021, @05:16AM (3 children)
It does seem pretty silver-bullety, something that's effective in a mix of patients who are "older with multiple comorbidities, ranging from diabetes and obesity to high blood pressure" seems a bit too good to be true. Be interesting to see if it can be replicated under controlled conditions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 29 2021, @06:29AM (1 child)
Side effects: penis growth up to 1", perky breasts and Improved Wellness.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday August 30 2021, @01:59PM
What about persons who have only one of either a penis or breasts, but not both? Do they experience any benefits from the treatment?
Universal health care is so complex that only 32 of 33 developed nations have found a way to make it work.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday August 29 2021, @04:36PM
Sounds like double-blind trials are in progress, so we should get more conclusive answers soon. (Assuming it's not a full on fraud)
I'm sure how relevant specific co-morbidities actually are - if the root problem is COVID interfering with oxygen uptake, then the co-morbities may well be mostly worsening the consequences of that. An unhealthy body is less able to deal with such extreme stresses. Treat the root problem directly, and the fact that your body couldn't deal with that problem stops being relevant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 31 2021, @10:13AM
All science is equal, but some science is more equal than other.. science?