as some states take tentative steps
toward reopening their economy
researchers are still looking for a
treatment for Kovan 18 which first
appeared four months ago and is now
sickened roughly three million people
worldwide in an effort to find something
anything that might work against the
symptoms of the virus they're looking at
a host of medical options and it turns
out one commonly used over-the-counter
heartburn medication might be helpful
Steven Fabian reports a popular
over-the-counter medicine may be an
exciting new treatment for Kovan 19 it's
the heartburn medication pepcid and now
the active ingredient famotidine is
being given to hundreds of seriously ill
koban 19 patients the patients are
receiving famotidine intravenously at
nine times the heartburn dose news of
the clinical trial has triggered a run
on Pepsodent pharmacies across America
today I managed to find just one box of
the tablets in a few containers of the
chewables here at this New York City
pharmacy I spoke with dr. David batten
le chief medical officer for northwell
health hospitals in New York which is
conducting the trial this would be a
huge breakthrough if I were to take a
bunch of this pepcid would that help me
fight coronavirus well that's what the
clinical trial is all about we're not
sure how much pepcid or the famotidine
we should be taking and hoping it'll get
an answer to that within hopefully four
weeks but is it something we're like I'm
actually ingesting this Pepsi time I'm
taking it orally taking it orally should
be effective but we don't know what
those that should be but there is some
skepticism about using pepsin says dr.
Stuart ray and infectious diseases
expert at the Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine if somebody who's developing
breathing difficulties delayed their
trip to get care delayed seeking care
because they think this drug might be
effective that would be a mistake we
really don't have any evidence right now
that this drug is effective because it's
never been tested in a clinical trial
[Music]
you
[Music]