Heartburn drug being studied as possible cure for coronavirus

A coomon heartburn drug called famotidine is being studied as the possible cure for the coronavirus pandemic in New York hospitals.

According to Dr. Kevin Tracey, president of Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health, preliminary results of itsclinical trial will come out in the next few weeks.

Northwell Healthruns 23 hospitals in the New York City area. 187 patients enrolled for the testin the hospital and tookmega-doses intravenously.

However, Northwell hopes to eventually enroll 1,200 patients.

Tracey and his colleagues got the idea to study famotidine after it was observed that some patients in China taking the drug fared better than patients not taking the drug.

"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 listed the advantages of the drug saying it is ''generic, plentiful andinexpensive."

However, he went ahead and said that he cannot say anything for certain before the test results arrive.