HomeA 10-day COVID treatment costs only $4 reduces symptoms, hospitalization and death

A 10-day COVID treatment costs only $4 reduces symptoms, hospitalization and death

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The United States has relied on monoclonal antibody treatments, although most of them are ineffective against the Omicron variant. One, developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology, is more effective at neutralizing the mutation, although it is restricted in supply.

Paxlovid, a recently approved antiviral pack from Pfizer, will also have to be rationed. More of Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ recently approved antiviral, molnupiravir, will be available, although patients may be hesitant to use it.

Some experts are concerned that it may cause DNA changes in humans, while the FDA found that the risk is negligible when used for a short period of time.

Fluvoxamine, a medication licensed by the FDA in 1994 to treat obsessive-compulsive disorders, is one intriguing alternative that isn’t receiving its due. It’s frequently prescribed off-label for anxiety, depression, and panic attacks by doctors. Fluvoxamine is highly successful at preventing hospitalization in Covid-infected patients, according to studies, and it is unlikely to be hampered by Omicron.

Fluvoxamine, according to doctors, can cause a cascade of reactions in cells that modify inflammation and disrupt virus operations. It could thereby prevent a cytokine storm, an overreactive immune response to infections that can lead to organ failure and death. It also raises melatonin levels at night, the sleep hormone, which may help to reduce inflammation, according to research.

In 2019, University of Virginia researchers discovered that fluvoxamine could be an effective treatment for sepsis, or blood-borne illness, while working with mice. During the early months of the pandemic, a big research in France indicated that Covid-19 patients treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like fluvoxamine were less likely to be intubated or die.

A tiny randomized control trial conducted last year by psychiatrists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis was a resounding success: None of the 80 patients who began taking fluvoxamine within seven days of exhibiting symptoms deteriorated. Six of the 72 participants in the placebo group were ill, and four were admitted to the hospital. The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November 2020, and they sparked a real-world experiment.

A Covid outbreak broke out among workers at the Golden Gate Fields horse racing track in Berkeley, California, shortly after the report was released. Fluvoxamine was supplied to workers by the track’s physician. None of the 65 patients who took it was hospitalized or still experienced symptoms after 14 days. Six (or 12.5%) of the 48 people who didn’t take the medicine were hospitalized, and one died. Twenty-nine people had symptoms that persisted, which could have been caused by inflammatory damage to their organs. It was expected that those who took the placebo would do better since they were more likely to be symptom-free when they tested positive.

The studies piqued the interest of Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.

“A big need right now is for a drug that you could take by mouth, that you could be offered as soon as you had a positive test, and that would reduce the likelihood that the virus is going to make you really sick,” he said during an interview. “Fluvoxamine could certainly be something you want to put in the tool chest,” Dr. Collins said. “It looks as if it has the promise to reduce the likelihood of severe illness.”

Last winter, researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, began a big clinical trial in Brazil. The trial’s findings, which were published in the Lancet in October, were astounding: In unvaccinated high-risk patients who generally followed the treatment plan, fluvoxamine lowered the risks of hospitalization or emergency care by 66 percent and mortality by 90 percent, similar to monoclonal antibodies. The fluvoxamine and placebo groups had the same number of side events.

The three fluvoxamine investigations were completed when different type of the variants were spreading, so there’s no reason to believe the drug wouldn’t function as effectively against Omicron. A 10-day dose of fluvoxamine costs $4, compared to $2,100 for monoclonal antibodies paid by the US government and $530 to $700 for the Pfizer and Merck medicines. Fluvoxamine is manufactured by a number of companies, all of which could easily boost supply if demand increased.

While doctors do not require FDA approval to prescribe fluvoxamine for emergency usage, they may be hesitant to do so unless the NIH endorses it in its Covid-19 therapy recommendations. State medical boards are investigating physicians who prescribed the antiparasite ivermectin for Covid-19 off-label.

The NIH says that “there is insufficient evidence . . . to recommend either for or against the use of fluvoxamine for the treatment of COVID-19.”

Image Credit: Getty

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