Anti-Inflammatory Drug Colchicine Investigated for COVID-19 in UK RECOVERY Trial

The UK’s RECOVERY trial, which is evaluating multiple treatments for COVID-19, will add the inexpensive anti-inflammatory drug colchicine to the list of therapies being tested in hospitalized patients.

Colchicine is often prescribed for gout and other inflammatory ailments, and it could have potential for treating severely ill COVID-19 patients who suffer from inflammation of the lungs and who require mechanical ventilation.

The researchers will assess the drug’s impact on hospital stay, whether supplemental oxygen is required and on mortality at 28 days. They said it is likely to be several months before colchicine’s efficacy is known.

“Colchicine is an attractive drug to evaluate in the RECOVERY trial as it is very well understood, inexpensive and widely available,” said the trial’s co-chief investigator, Peter Horby. “If it works, it would be another COVID-19 treatment that could be used immediately worldwide, even in the poorest countries.”

Colchicine joins a list of treatments being investigated in the RECOVERY trial, which includes Roche’s arthritis drug Actemra (tocilizumab), convalescent plasma containing antibodies from recovered coronavirus patients, Regeneron’s antibody cocktail (casirivimab and imdevimab) and aspirin. ― Jason Scott