EU Consortium Identifies Osteoporosis Drug as Possible COVID-19 Treatment

A European Union-backed research consortium has identified raloxifene, an osteoporosis drug, as a possible treatment for mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients.

The Exscalate4CoV consortium used supercomputers to screen 400,000 molecules for potential efficacy against the virus and narrowed those down to 7,000 for testing.

Coordinated by the Italian biopharmaceutical company, Dompé Farmaceutici, the consortium includes 18 institutions in seven European countries. It is in talks with the European Medicines Agency about clinical trials to evaluate raloxifene for the treatment of COVID-19.

The European Commission said the drug could be made quickly at high volumes and at low cost if trials are successful. — Jordan Williams