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An extensive study launched by the Montreal Heart Institute last March concluded that the anti-inflammatory drug colchicine may reduce some of the complications associated with COVID-19.
In a news release issued on Friday, the institute described its findings as an “important scientific discovery” that could help millions of COVID-19 patients around the world.
Colchicine, a cheap and easy-to-manufacture tablet, is already known and is used for other diseases. The study looked at its effect on 4,159 COVID-19 patients.
The patients involved had to be older than 40 and have at least one risk factor for possible complications. The results show that the medicine helped reduce hospitalizations by a quarter, the need for mechanical ventilation by half and deaths by 44 percent.
Researchers involved believe that colchicine may become the first oral medication used to treat COVID-19 patients who have not been hospitalized.