Houston Methodist researchers are actively working on investigational therapies for COVID-19. Here are a few you might find interesting:
- There has been some success with the antiviral drug Remdesivir as an experimental treatment for COVID-19 to slow down the virus from reproducing itself in the body. This drug was previously tested in patients with Ebola virus and is now in national clinical trials. We have five patients approved for compassionate use and several expanded use studies that began enrolling patients last week.
- We are collaborating with GeneOne, a company in The Woodlands, to generate and test an RNA vaccine for COVID-19. The COVID-19 virus is made of RNA, so researchers are looking at RNA vaccines as a new class of therapeutics that are particularly promising for a rapid response to a pandemic.
- Lastly, we will soon begin recruiting recovered COVID-19 patients to donate plasma as a potentially life-saving therapy for critically ill COVID-19 patients. This convalescent serum therapy has been used for decades in previous disease outbreaks, dating back to the Spanish influenza. Houston Methodist Hospital will be one of the first hospitals in the nation to use an advanced FDA-approved protocol to provide infusions to critical COVID-19 patients.
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