Treatment

Inside Biden’s big “Test To Treat” plan for COVID. Here’s why it’s complicated

New initiative promises a "one stop shop" for the infected.

We aren’t using all of our tools to treat Covid-19

More treatments are available for Covid-19 as hospitalizations spike, but some drugs are sitting on the shelves unused.

Why Are Covid Antibody Drugs Sitting on Shelves?

Strapped hospitals are struggling to set up infusion sites. But states and the feds can help.

Are more people surviving Covid-19 because doctors are doing less?

There is now concern that some of the drugs we were giving to Covid-19 patients were more than just useless — they might, in fact, have been harmful.

Artificial Antibodies Are The Latest COVID-19 Treatment. But Hospitals May Struggle To Use Them

As the third wave of the pandemic surges, a much-hyped COVID-19 treatment that just received a green light from the FDA — monoclonal antibodies — is beset by shortages and doubts over its effectiveness.

Repurposed Antiviral Drugs for Covid-19 — Interim WHO Solidarity Trial Results

These remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and interferon regimens had little or no effect on hospitalized patients with Covid-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation, and duration of hospital stay.

Steroids are a powerful Covid-19 treatment. We need to learn to use them better.

Doctors must optimize treatments for deadly inflammation in Covid-19 patients to save more lives.

These breakthroughs will make 2021 better than 2020

The latest on the innovations that will let us go back to normal.

What’s Up With Ivermectin?

One of the small-molecule drugs that’s getting attention as a possible coronavirus treatment is Ivermectin, which is an interesting story from a couple of different directions. I’ve been getting some inquiries about it, so I thought it was time to have a look.

FDA Grants Emergency Authorization For A 2nd COVID-19 Antibody Treatment

The treatment combines two antibodies — casirivimab and imdevimab — and administers them together by IV. In a clinical trial of about 800 people, the combination was shown to significantly reduce virus levels within days of treatment. In its authorization on Saturday, the FDA made clear that the drug is only for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in people 12 years and older who are at high risk of developing more severe symptoms. It's not for patients who are hospitalized because of COVID-19 or who require oxygen therapy because of the virus.

Ivermectin is still not a miracle cure for COVID-19, despite what you may have read

Many of the current studies have low numbers of participants, weak study designs, and inconsistent (and relatively low) ivermectin dosing regimes, with ivermectin frequently given in combination with other drugs.

JAK Inhibition as a New Treatment Strategy for Patients with COVID-19

... considering the common role of the Janus kinase-signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK-STAT) pathway in AT1-R expressed on peripheral tissues and cytokine receptors on the surface of immune cells, potential targeting of this pathway using JAK inhibitors (JAKinibs) is suggested as a promising approach in patients with COVID-19 who are admitted to hospitals.

Latin America’s embrace of an unproven COVID treatment is hindering drug trials

“What we’re having is a populist treatment, instead of an evidence-based treatment,” says García.

Lilly’s monoclonal antibody fails in NIH-sponsored ACTIV-3 trial

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced that preliminary results from a Phase III clinical trial of Eli Lilly and Company’s investigational monoclonal antibody, LY-CoV555, showed it failed to provide clinical benefit in hospitalised Covid-19 patients.

Two Existing Technologies Could Fight Covid Now

Germicidal lighting and a tuberculosis vaccine should be a part of the pandemic response.

Yes, we need a vaccine to control Covid-19. But we need new treatments, too

Hopes for a relatively quick return to normalcy are riding high on promising news about Covid-19 vaccines. Nearly 200 vaccines are in development worldwide. And with six of them already being tested in Phase 3 clinical trials, the possibility exists that a vaccine could be ready by the end of the year But we need to be realistic: A vaccine is not a silver bullet. Even if one (or more) is proven safe and effective, vaccines are notoriously difficult to make and distribute.

Blood Plasma Provides Possible Therapy for Covid-19 Patients

Convalescent plasma has shown enough promise against COVID-19 that hundreds of hospitals around the country have put it to use. While still considered an experimental treatment, patients are receiving convalescent plasma through clinical trials and by way of compassionate use, which the Food and Drug Administration expanded access to earlier this year.

Blood Plasma Reduces Risk of Severe Covid-19 if Given Early

Thousands of people received convalescent plasma as an experimental treatment for Covid. A new study shows that it works — but only when given within a few days of the onset of illness.

Can vitamin D supplements help protect against covid-19?

If newspaper headlines are to be believed, there is a simple way to protect ourselves from the coronavirus: take a daily vitamin D tablet. Some say the benefits are so great that people should take mega-doses. But the scientific evidence doesn’t back up the claims. What should we believe?

Can ‘Team Science’ Yield a Covid-19 Treatment?

What makes the work done by Chanda and his colleagues noteworthy is the number of drugs they assessed and the speed with which that happened.

Convalescent Plasma Is Safe to Treat Covid-19, National Study Shows

First large-scale analysis of patients receiving experimental treatment for coronavirus is expected to lead to more trials to test effectiveness of therapy

Could a Forgotten Pneumonia Treatment Help COVID Patients?

Radiation was used experimentally in the early 1900s for lung infections.

Could blood thinners be a lifesaving treatment for COVID-19? Here’s what the science says and what it means for you

A spate of recent media headlines have described blood thinning medications – which include aspirin and warfarin – as a “breakthrough treatment” for COVID-19 that could “save lives”. It’s early days yet but a growing body of research evidence suggests COVID-19 causes abnormalities in blood clotting, which means blood thinning drugs may have a role to play in treatment. Here’s what the research says on this question – and how it applies to you.

COVID-19 Clinical Summary

An up-to-date summary from EMCrit Project.

Dexamethasone and the Recovery Trial’s High-Speed Science

In just three months, one British research team identified the first life-saving drug of the pandemic (and helped cancel hydroxychloroquine).

Don’t expect AI to solve the coronavirus crisis on its own

How optimistic should we be about the impact of artificial intelligence in a pandemic?

Everything You Wanted to Know About Donating COVID-19 Antibodies

If you've recovered from the coronavirus, your plasma might be useful to other people.

Focus shifts to antibody cocktails for COVID-19 cytokine storm

Emerging clinical trial data suggest that individual immunomodulatory drugs can dampen the hyperactive immune system in severe COVID-19, but polytherapy is the way forward.

Gilead’s Remdesivir Tested With Other Drugs to Fight Covid-19

Researchers are looking to find a more potent coronavirus-fighting cocktail.

Here are the drugs, vaccines and therapies in development to tackle COVID-19

Even moderately effective therapies or combinations could dramatically reduce the crushing demand on hospitals and intensive care units, changing the nature of the risk the new pathogen represents to populations and healthcare systems. New drugs, together with new diagnostics, antibody tests, patient- and contact-tracing technologies, disease surveillance and other early-warning tools, mean the anticipated next 'wave' of the global pandemic does not have to be nearly as bad as the first. More than 70 vaccine candidates are also in development around the world, with at least five in preliminary testing in people. Here are some of the drugs, vaccines and other therapies in development:

How Close Are We to Finding a Treatment for Covid-19?

Scientists are following several paths in the battle with Covid-19 as they seek to help treat patients in the short term and protect the population in the future.

How Remdesivir, New Hope for Covid-19 Patients, Was Resurrected

The drug failed as a treatment for hepatitis and Ebola. With federal funding, scientists trained it on the coronavirus.

Hydroxychloroquine can’t stop COVID-19. It’s time to move on, scientists say

An abundance of scientific data shows that the drug isn’t an effective COVID-19 treatment.

Inexpensive steroids reduce deaths of hospitalized Covid-19 patients, WHO analysis confirms

The positive steroid findings — the result of a pooled look at data known as a meta-analysis — confirm a similar survival benefit reported in June from a single, large study. Corticosteroids are the first, and so far only, therapy shown to improve the odds of survival for critically ill patients with Covid-19.

I’m glad to be living in India at this time

As western countries pontificated against repurposing drugs, proactive Indian doctors chartered their own course -- finding what works and healing people, with amazing results. It’s commendable. Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/i-m-glad-to-be-living-in-india-at-this-time-926699.html

More Studies Shed Light on the Value of Zinc in Covid-19

Evidence suggests that zinc could protect against Covid-19 — how?

President Trump's COVID-19 Treatment Is Already Unique. Here's What Doctors May Do Next

How the President of the United States is treated for COVID-19 will likely be very different from how the 7 million-plus other Americans who have contracted the disease were taken care of, at least in some ways. To start, before Trump was hospitalized, his physician Sean Conley revealed that the President received an experimental drug duo from Regeneron of so-called monoclonal antibodies.

Scientists say the best treatment for COVID-19 may be a cocktail of medicines

More than a dozen drug firms in Massachusetts are urgently searching for a medicine to treat COVID-19, but the most potent therapy may not end up being a single medication. Instead, medical experts say, the most effective way to battle the disease will likely be a combination of drugs taken together.

Startup uses A.I. to identify molecules that could fight coronavirus

Insilico Medicine, a startup based in Rockville, Md., says it has used artificial intelligence to rapidly identify molecules that could form the basis of an effective treatment against the coronavirus at the heart of the current outbreak. It took Insilico's A.I.-based system four days to identify thousands of new molecules that could be turned into potential medicines against the virus.

The Lancet’s Politicized Science on Antimalarial Drugs

A new study suggests a treatment Trump touted is harmful. Let’s take a closer look at the data.

The Latest Research on COVID-19 Treatments and Medications in the Pipeline

We are in desperate need of a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19. Scientists around the world are racing against time to find a cure. Here’s what we know so far about emerging treatments for coronavirus,

The Promising New Covid-19 Therapy You Probably Haven’t Heard About

So-called monoclonal antibodies could help treat patients, protect at-risk groups, and also improve vaccines.

The Race for a Super-Antibody Against the Coronavirus

A network of scientists is chasing the pandemic’s holy grail: an antibody that protects against not just the virus, but also related pathogens that may threaten humans.

The Treatment That Could Crush Covid

Early trials show signaling cells eliminate the virus, calm the immune response and repair tissue damage.

The Trump Treatment for Covid Is Coming Soon

Antibody drugs like the one the president took may be a bridge to a vaccine.

Want a New Covid-19 Drug Fast? Bring on the Battle Royale

Scientists have no shortage of contenders to fight the new coronavirus. But to find the winners, they’re trying new approaches to testing.

What is plasma therapy?

Many options are being explored to treat COVID-19. These include new drugs specifically designed to target SARS-CoV-2, as well as “repurposed” drugs - that is, existing drugs designed to treat a different disease. By far the oldest treatment being tested, though, is convalescent plasma.

What Prior Pandemics Tell Us About Drug Discovery in Times of Crisis

The frantic pace of the coronavirus has led us to repeat mistakes we’ve made before.

What you should know about experimental therapies for coronavirus

Antivirals and blood therapy sound promising, but how do they work, and when will we know if they truly treat COVID-19?

CombatCovid

Healthy people can help in the fight against the pandemic by volunteering for a clinical trial to find safe and effective new vaccines.

Covid-19 Early Treatment Fund

We're on a mission to find an existing drug or drug combination that, when given early, reduces hospitalization and fatality rates by 75% or more.

COVID-19 therapeutics tracker

This tracker will be updated weekly with the latest in developments for treatment candidates who have advanced to at least Phase 1 study.

CovidSalon: Treatment Options

An AIDS treatment activist on COVID: How to save lives now; Long COVID research.

Evidence Bites

This article was published in collaboration with MDCalc.

Monoclonal & Antiviral Therapy for Non-Hospitalized Patients

Individuals should be considered for outpatient therapy for COVID-19 if they... Are symptomatic with mild-moderate COVID-19 illness AND Have a positive SARS-CoV-2 viral test result, AND Are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.

Recovery Trial

This international clinical trial aims to identify treatments that may be beneficial for people hospitalised with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Here are some results for several drugs.

Treatment and Vaccine Tracker

FasterCures, a center of the Milken Institute, is currently tracking the development of treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 (coronavirus). This tracker contains an aggregation of publicly-available information from validated sources.

Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP)

FDA has created a special emergency program for possible therapies, the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program (CTAP). It uses every available method to move new treatments to patients as quickly as possible, while at the same time finding out whether they are helpful or harmful.

Math+ Protocol

The MATH+ Hospital Treatment Protocol for COVID-19 is designed for hospitalized patients, to be initiated as soon as possible after they develop respiratory difficulty and require oxygen supplementation.

Doctors fighting coronavirus face a ventilator Catch-22

Physicians treating the wave of patients infected with the novel coronavirus face a difficult choice. As critically ill patients struggle to breathe, healthcare workers have deployed invasive ventilators that take on the job for them—and help protect those around them from infection. But as more information becomes available about the success of mechanical ventilation in Covid-19 patients, some doctors are questioning whether intubation is the best way to keep these patients alive.

I-MASK+ Protocol

The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance has now developed a preventive and early outpatient combination treatment protocol for COVID-19 called I-MASK+. The “I” in this protocol for ivermectin, a well-known anti-parasite drug.

Are we turning the corner on Covid-19 treatments?

But there’s finally been some real progress on identifying Covid-19 treatments that not only are highly effective but also available for Covid-19 sufferers to take at home.

How Science Beat the Virus

Thousands of researchers dropped whatever intellectual puzzles had previously consumed their curiosity and began working on the pandemic instead. In mere months, science became thoroughly COVID-ized.

What is the ACE2 receptor, how is it connected to coronavirus and why might it be key to treating COVID-19?

In the search for treatments for COVID-19, many researchers are focusing their attention on a specific protein that allows the virus to infect human cells. Called the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, or ACE2 “receptor,” the protein provides the entry point for the coronavirus to hook into and infect a wide range of human cells. Might this be central in how to treat this disease?

Covid-19 Pill Shows Promise in Preliminary Testing

The antiviral reduced infectious virus in Covid-19 patients in a mid-stage study.

New treatments for COVID-19 may stave off the worst effects of the virus

As an infectious diseases physician and scientist, I have been working to find new treatments for patients since the pandemic’s beginning. Here’s a look at some of them, with one caveat: While these medications might help many patients, none substitute for the vaccine, which is still the best defense against the virus.

Too Much Caution Is Killing Covid Patients

Doctors should follow the evidence for promising therapies. Instead they demand certainty.

After A Year Battling COVID-19, Drug Treatments Get A Mixed Report Card

Many other drugs remain in the we-don't-know bucket. Those include monoclonal antibodies, even though they have been granted emergency authorization to treat people with mild to moderate infections to keep them out of the hospital.

Brazil's Main COVID Strategy Is A Cocktail Of Unproven Drugs

Although other early COVID-19 interventions with existing drugs have shown promise, proponents of tratamento precoce — which include Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro — lean on discredited or skewed experiments to trumpet the regimen's effectiveness, even after several of the pills were proven not to work against COVID-19 in conclusive clinical trials last year.

Coronavirus: which treatments work and which don’t?

Thanks to the Recovery trial, based at Oxford University, we’re finding out more all the time about which therapies are useful. So, while the below won’t be the definitive answer on how to treat COVID-19... this is what we know so far about what works.

Covid Treatment Options Remain Elusive, Despite Months of Effort and Rising Delta Cases

Researchers have been held back by a lack of relevant research, a scattered array of clinical trials and a fragmented U.S. healthcare system.

Covid Treatment Options Remain Elusive, Despite Months of Effort and Rising Delta Cases

Researchers have been held back by a lack of relevant research, a scattered array of clinical trials and a fragmented U.S. healthcare system

How a cheap antidepressant emerged as a promising Covid-19 treatment

Most Covid-19 drug treatments that have been included in trials haven’t panned out. A large new study suggests fluvoxamine might be different.

The Best Hopes for a Coronavirus Drug

If there is a way to stop COVID-19, it will be by blocking its proteins from hijacking, suppressing, and evading humans’ cellular machinery.

To conquer COVID-19, create the perfect pill

Experts say oral antivirals, long out of reach, could play a critical role in extinguishing the current coronavirus pandemic and preventing others from emerging

We aren’t using all of our tools to treat Covid-19

More treatments are available for Covid-19 as hospitalizations spike, but some drugs are sitting on the shelves unused.

The best treatments we currently have for COVID-19

We’ve come a long way since the beginning of the pandemic.

4 changes doctors have made to better treat Covid-19 patients

“There is a lot that has changed. We’ve made amazing progress,” Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, the chief of the infectious disease division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School, told me in a phone interview last week. “Many of us do have the sense that we’ve gotten better at what we’re doing, and we are seeing less mortality, even among older hospitalized patients with Covid-19.”

ARBs & ACEs

Despite initial fears, evidence from retrospective observational studies supports the inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system as an emerging pathway to delay or moderate angiotensin II-driven lung inflammation - Rodolfo Pedro Rothlin

Aspirin

RECOVERY trial finds aspirin does not improve survival for patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

Azithromycin

RECOVERY trial finds no benefit from azithromycin in patients hospitalised with COVID-19

Budesonide

Inhaled corticosteroids in virus pandemics: a treatment for COVID-19? - Dan V Nicolau & Mona Bafadhel

Colchicine

RECOVERY trial finds colchicine does not improve survival for patients hospitalised with COVID-19

Convalescent Plasma

Among patients hospitalised with COVID-19, high-titre convalescent plasma did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes - Recovery Trial

Decadron

Low-cost dexamethasone reduces death by up to one third in hospitalised patients with severe respiratory complications of COVID-19 - Recovery Trial

Hydroxychloroquine

No clinical benefit from use of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 - Recovery Trial

Ivermectin

The antiparasitic drug was thought to be a potential treatment for COVID-19, but there isn't sufficient evidence to recommend its use, despite widespread support online - Gordon Dent

Melatonin

Vague success claims aside, a handful of others have written about the possible ways melatonin might reduce the severity of a SARS-CoV-2 infection, and there's currently a clinical trial running in the U.S. to examine this possibility. However, “at this time, early SARS-CoV-2 intervention with melatonin is not well supported,” says Cesar Borlongan, a neurologist at the University of South Florida. Much more rigorous research is needed to determine whether the molecule can do more than regulate sleep-wake cycles.

Monoclonal Antibodies

RECOVERY trial finds Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody combination reduces deaths for hospitalised COVID-19 patients who have not mounted their own immune response.

Pepcid

Because the disease affects different people in different ways. Anything that works on even part of it, can and will be used to save lives and shorten the duration of the disease, when dosed on the right patients at the right time in the right method. That is the goal here. Anything that helps that happen is worth celebrating _ Shazbot

Quercetin

Parallels drawn with early data on hydroxychloroquine.

Remdesivir

The antiviral drug Remdesivir is the first step in what we project will be better and better drugs coming along to treat COVID-19 - Anthony Fauci

Steroids

The other thing to emphasize... is that none of these drugs directly alter the pandemic itself. They will save more lives when people get infected, but we really need to try to keep more people from getting infected in the first place, especially now that it’s become more apparent that social distancing and as trivial a thing as public use of face masks can help. We could be mitigating this pandemic with such measures in this country, but in too many regions we don’t seem to be doing that. Eventually, though, what makes this disease go away will be a vaccine.

Tocilizumab

Tocilizumab reduces deaths in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 - Recovery Trial

Vaccines

No mRNA vaccine has ever been mass-produced to fight a disease — coronavirus would be the first - Matthew Rozsa

Vitamin D

We’re scientists – we believe in data. We feel that the data today suggests that vitamin D will not protect against Covid outcomes. We would be happy to entertain any data that suggests otherwise - Dr Brent Richards

Zinc

Zinc is no COVID-19 magic bullet, but it has shown to help with other coronaviruses - Todd Neff