New York Health System Tests Heartburn Drug in COVID-19 Patients

A New York healthcare network is studying famotidine, the active ingredient in the heartburn drug Pepcid, as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Northwell Health’s Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research is conducting a phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the drug in combination with hydroxychloroquine in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The trial got underway in March and has enrolled more than 150 patients so far. Early results could be available “within a few weeks,” a Northwell spokesperson said.

Northwell does not want to release information that could cause false hope and a spike in demand for famotidine and hydroxychloroquine. Results of the trial “will not be known until they are completed, the data analyzed and the sponsors of the trials [share] the findings publicly,” the spokesperson said. — James Miessler