A recent study revealed that in non-hospitalised, unvaccinated adults with mild-to-moderate Covid-19, treatment with a high dose of the antacid drug famotidine helped speed resolution of symptoms and inflammation in a small, randomised controlled trial, Reuters reported.
Roughly half of those in the 55-patient trial took famotidine. The main ingredient in Johnson & Johnson’s widely used over-the-counter Pepsid heartburn drug three times a day for two weeks. The others took a dummy pill. About a third of the study’s participants were from the African American community and a quarter from Hispanic.
Patients in the famotidine group had faster resolution of 14 of 16 symptoms assessed in the study, including loss of smell and taste, difficulty breathing and abdominal pain.
Famotidine treatment also led to faster improvements in markers of inflammation without any detrimental effects on patients’ immune responses, the researchers reported in the journal Gut.
“We hope that the data we are sharing with this study guide future trials that are necessary to confirm famotidine as a treatment for patients with Covid-19,” study leader Dr Tobias Janowitz of Northwell Health and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory said in a news release.