Visit our Covid-19 microsite for the latest coronavirus news, analysis and updates Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Colorado at Denver in the US are working on repurposing an existing blood clots drug to help patients at risk of respiratory failure.
The drug is a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) used to help heart attack and stroke patients. Three hospitals in Massachusetts and Colorado intend to test the drug in severely ill Covid-19 patients.
According to MIT, the project comes from data of Chinese and Italian studies that Covid-19 is characterised by blood clotting linked to respiratory failure.