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After hopeful early signs, study of popular heartburn drug shows mixed results against Covid-19
CNN
At one point at the beginning of the pandemic, there was hope that a popular and inexpensive over-the-counter heartburn drug might hold promise for treating Covid-19, but a newly published study shows mixed results.
In the clinical trial, people with mild to moderate Covid-19 who took very high doses of famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid, had some improvement in their symptoms more quickly than those who took a placebo, a pill that does nothing.
But the trial, believed to be the first of its kind, was small, and the effect was far from dramatic. Among the 55 study participants, those who were assigned to take famotidine had an estimated 50% reduction in symptoms at 8.2 days, and those who were assigned a placebo saw that reduction in 11.4 days.
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