The heartburn remedy famotidine may disable a key enzyme that the new coronavirus uses to make copies (gold) of itself. By Brendan BorrellScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.The fast-growing list of possible treatments for the novel coronavirus includes an unlikely candidate: famotidine, the active compound in the over-the-counter heartburn drug Pepcid.
On 7 April, the first COVID-19 patients at Northwell Health in the New York City area began receiving famotidine intravenously, at nine times the heartburn dose.
Unlike other drugs the 23-hospital system is testing, including Regeneron’s sarilumab and Gilead Science’s remdesivir, Northwell kept the famotidine study under wraps to secure a research stockpile