Local hospital participating in COVID-19 drug trial - East Idaho News
Coronavirus

Local hospital participating in COVID-19 drug trial

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IDAHO FALLS — A local hospital is participating in a COVID-19 drug trial aimed at reducing the number of patients who need to be put in intensive care or on a ventilator.

Idaho Falls Community Hospital recently enrolled its first patient in the trial — a person in their late 20s. The global, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study involves a medication called Ruxolitinib, more commonly known as Jakavi.

“We want to save as many people as we can from having major complications and dying of COVID,” Dr. Richard Nathan, the IFCH physician overseeing the trial, told EastIdahoNews.com. “This is a fairly big trial. (It’s) a very important trial.”

The medication can be used in patients 12 years and older who have COVID-19 and are experiencing a cytokine storm.

“(A cytokine storm) is a condition when the body’s exposed to something, like this coronavirus, that it starts producing certain chemicals that overstimulate the immune system, and it can cause respiratory failure and a whole host of other problems,” he said.

Jakavi is being looked at for the treatment of a cytokine storm to prevent the progression of the disease, Nathan added.

Nathan says COVID-19 can damage people’s lungs, and because lungs don’t regenerate, if a person gets lung damage, they’re stuck with it.

“People are having to get lung transplants because of COVID, or they might be stuck carrying oxygen with them for the rest of their lives,” he says. “(COVID-19) might not kill you, but … who wants that (long-lasting damage) if you don’t have to deal with it?”

Jakavi was first approved by the FDA in 2011 to treat patients with a specific type of bone marrow cancer, according to an IFCH news release.

The medication is an oral tablet taken twice daily. However, not all COVID-19 patients qualify to be part of the trial. Nathan says there’s criteria the patient has to meet, such as being hospitalized, and their oxygen levels have to be about 94% or less.

“They have to be fairly ill,” Nathan said.

He noted that patients that are generally going to be offered participation in the study will be on a steroid and Remdesivir, an antiviral medication. Standard-of-care medications like these can still be used in patients participating in the study, Nathan said.

The potential side effects that can come with taking Jakavi can be found here.

The trial is expected to last about another month, according to Nathan.

“I’m very positive about the work that we’re doing,” Nathan stated. “But in the end, we won’t know until all the patients are enrolled, the statisticians look at it, the data is analyzed and we find out if the medicine works or not.”

More COVID-19 news can be found by clicking here.

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