Heartburn drug is being tested as a potenial coronavirus drug in New York hospitals
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Monday
January 30, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2023
Heartburn drug is being tested as a potenial coronavirus drug in New York hospitals

Coronavirus chronicle

TBS Report
27 April, 2020, 05:30 pm
Last modified: 27 April, 2020, 05:37 pm

Related News

  • Philippine bank at centre of cyber heist appeals New York court loss to Bangladesh
  • Tk40 lakh illegal drugs seized in Ctg wholesale drug market
  • US Supreme Court lets New York enforce new gun restrictions
  • New York governor legalises composting of human bodies after death
  • Top 10 places to see in New York City

Heartburn drug is being tested as a potenial coronavirus drug in New York hospitals

The doctors are ready to take this risk witnessing significant improvement after having this drug because, "There are a lot of anecdotes passing around that give us some hope."

TBS Report
27 April, 2020, 05:30 pm
Last modified: 27 April, 2020, 05:37 pm
In this photo provided by Gilead Sciences, a vial of the investigational drug remdesivir is visually inspected at a Gilead manufacturing site in the United States.AP Photo
In this photo provided by Gilead Sciences, a vial of the investigational drug remdesivir is visually inspected at a Gilead manufacturing site in the United States.AP Photo

Covid-19 patients in New York are being given heartburn medicine to experiment if it can be an effective drug to treat Covid-19.

Preliminary results of the clinical trial of famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid, could come out in the next few weeks, said Dr. Kevin Tracey, president of Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health, which runs 23 hospitals in the New York City area, reports CNN.

They are expecting to collect 1200 samples for this study.
"There are many examples in the history of medicine where a drug that was designed for one purpose turns out to have an effect in another disease," Tracey said.

He said if famotidine works then it would be easy to use it on a widespread scale.

But he emphasized that it might not work.

"We don't know if it has any benefit. We really don't. I swear we don't," he said. "People are hoping for anything. But we need to do this clinical trial."

He cautiously forbade people to take any insensitive step that could harm them more.

"You should not go to the drugstore and take a bunch of heartburn medicine," he said.

Tracey and his colleagues got the idea to study famotidine from China where they observed that  some patients performed far better than patients not taking the drug.

He said studies on the Chinese patients have not yet been published, but that Dr. Michael Callahan, an infectious disease specialist at

Massachusetts General Hospital who worked with coronavirus patients in China observed that some people with lower incomes were surviving longer than their wealthier counterparts who also had heartburn.

Though the Chinese study is still not published, they are ready to take this risk after witnessing significant improvement after having this drug.

"The poor peasants really seemed to do well on famotidine," Tracey said. "There are a lot of anecdotes passing around that give us some hope."

The doctors are very concerned with initiating the trail as they don't wish to create a situation like hydroxychloroquine.

Just a few days ago, hydroxychloroquine became a standard and essential drug for treating coronavirus, ignoring all the side effects at first.
"You have to be fair to people -- they're reading in the paper and hearing on the news that hydroxychloroquine works and they look at their dying wife or grandma or child and they want to try it and how could we say no? What kind of person would say no?" Tracey said.

That's why they have decided to drop the malaria drug in their trial over patients as the US Food and Drug Administration warned against its use for coronavirus because of possible side effects.

Tracey said, "The independent board monitoring the trial will make the decision about whether to continue including hydroxychloroquine in the study."

He added that Northwell kept the study quiet until now because of the experience with doctors rushing to put patients on hydroxychloroquine. He doesn't want that same rush for intravenous famotidine, it's unclear if it works, and if there's a rush on the drug, his research team might not have enough for their study subjects.

He's also concerned that people who don't have heartburn will rush to stores to buy famotidine pills, mistakenly convinced it will help against coronavirus.

He said these are unusual concerns at an unusual time.

"That's the reality of trying to do the right thing in a pandemic. It's very, very hard," he said.

Top News

Coronavirus / New york / heartburn / medicine / Coronavirus Drugs

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: Collected
    Economic slump drags down growth in VAT collection from big cos
  • It's corruption that bites business harder: CPD
    It's corruption that bites business harder: CPD
  • Import slowdown to affect economic growth: ADB country head
    Import slowdown to affect economic growth: ADB country head

MOST VIEWED

  • FIKE PHOTO: Medical staff moves a patient into a fever clinic at a hospital, as coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks continue in Shanghai, China, December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
    China approves two domestically developed Covid drugs
  • People walk with their luggage at a railway station during the annual Spring Festival travel rush ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Shanghai, China January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song
    Holiday trips within China surge after lifting of Covid curbs
  • Photo: Collected
    India launches world’s 1st intranasal Covid vaccine
  • A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants is pictured at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    US CDC still looking at potential stroke risk from Pfizer bivalent Covid shot
  •  A medical worker checks the IV drip treatment of a patient lying on a bed in the emergency department of a hospital, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China, January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Staff
    China says Covid deaths down by nearly 80 percent
  • Sean Bagley, 14, receives the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron sub variants at Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Beier
    Updated Covid vaccines prevented illness from latest variants -CDC

Related News

  • Philippine bank at centre of cyber heist appeals New York court loss to Bangladesh
  • Tk40 lakh illegal drugs seized in Ctg wholesale drug market
  • US Supreme Court lets New York enforce new gun restrictions
  • New York governor legalises composting of human bodies after death
  • Top 10 places to see in New York City

Features

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

Nandita Sharmin's journey to give organic skincare a new identity

18h | Mode
Illustration: TBS

'The silver lining is that the worst is sort of behind us': Hamid Rashid, UN economist

22h | Panorama
Photo: Bloomberg

BuzzFeed and AI are a match made in fad city

21h | Panorama
Snipe in flight. Photo: Enam Ul Haque

Baikka Beel: 'A world where snipe work late'

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

12h | TBS Entertainment
Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

13h | TBS SPORTS
“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

14h | TBS Round Table
What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

1d | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

3
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

4
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

5
Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!
Bangladesh

Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]