(WHDH) — A licensed drug that is normally used to treat abnormal levels of fatty substances in the blood can reduce infection caused by coronavirus by up to 70 percent, a new study showed.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham, Keele University, and San Raffaele Scientific Institute found that fenofibrate and its active form can significantly reduce SARS-COV-2 infection in human cells in the laboratory.
“Importantly, reduction of infection was obtained using concentrations of the drug which are safe and achievable using the standard clinical dose of fenofibrate,” researchers wrote.
Fenofibrate is an oral drug currently used to treat conditions such as high levels of cholesterol and lipids in the blood. It’s been approved for use by most countries, including the United States Food and Drug Administration and the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Researchers are now calling for clinical trials to test the drug in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Two clinical trials are also underway by the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in the US and Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
Additional unpublished data also indicates that fenofibrate is equally effective against the newer coronavirus variants, researchers added.
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