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BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic putting the population at a high risk of infection-related health hazards, mortality and a potential failure of proper medical therapies. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the potential use of the existing drugs that could be used as options for the medical management of COVID-19 patients. AIM: To evaluate the role of the H2 receptor blocker "famotidine" in COVID-19 illness. METHODS: This study was done on seriously ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) from different institutes in Bangladesh. Patients were divided into famotidine treatment group "A" (famotidine 40 mg to 60 mg oral formulation every 8 h with other treatment as given), and control group "B" (treatment as given). National early warning score (NEWS)-2, and sequential organ failure assessment day-1 score was calculated to evaluate the outcome. Outcomes were evaluated by the time required for clinical improvement, characterized as duration required from enrollment to the achievement of NEWS-2 of ≤ 2 maintained for 24 h; time to symptomatic recovery, defined as the duration in days (from randomization) required for the recovery of the COVID-19 symptoms; mortality rate; duration of ICU and hospital stay; total period of hospitalization; the rate of supplementary oxygen requirement; the computed tomography (CT) chest recovery (%), the time required for the viral clearance and "NEWS-2" on discharge. RESULTS: A total of 208 patients were enrolled in this study with 104 patients in each group. The famotidine treatment group had comparatively better recovery of 75% and a low mortality of 25% than the control with a recovery of 70% and a mortality of 30%. Duration of clinical improvement (group A 9.53 d, group B 14.21 d); hospitalization period among the recovered patients (group A 13.04 d, group B 16.31 d), pulmonary improvement in chest CT (group A 21.7%, group B 13.2%), and the time for viral clearance (group A 20.7 d, group B 23.8 d) were found to be statistically significant P ≤ 0.05. However, the Kaplan Meier survival test was not significant among the two study groups, P = 0.989. CONCLUSION: According to our study, treatment with famotidine achieved a better clinical outcome compared to the control group in severe COVID-19 illness, although no significant survival benefit was found.
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Objective: In this study, we investigated the efficacy and safety of remdesivir and tocilizumab combination therapy against dexamethasone for the management of severe COVID-19 patients. Methods: This was a multicenter study. Cases were randomly chosen and divided into two groups using an odd-even ratio of 1:1 applied to the hospital registration number. Group A received remdesivir [5 mg/kg (<40 kg) or 200 mg (>40 kg) on day 1 and then 2.5 mg/kg (<40 kg) or 100 mg (>40 kg) daily] + tocilizumab [8 mg/kg up to 800 mg highest 12 h apart], and group B was the control and received dexamethasone 6 mg/day. In addition, a broad-spectrum antibiotic and other essential treatments were received by all patients. To evaluate the mortality risk, the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score was calculated on day-1. Treatment outcomes were measured as time to clinical improvement; mortality rate; duration of ICU stay; total period of hospitalization; the rate of (Supplementary Material) oxygen use; time to clinical failure; National Early Warning Score-2 (NEWS), and the percentage of lung recovery on CT of chest on discharge. Clinical trial registration ID: NCT04678739. Results: Remdesivir-Tocilizumab group had a lower mortality rate (25.49%) than the control (30.77%). The time to clinical improvement (Group A-9.41; B-14.21 days), NEWS-2 on discharge (Group A-0.89; B-1.2), duration of ICU stay (Group A-7.68; B-10.58), and duration of hospitalization (Group A-9.91; B-14.68) were less in the treatment group. Group A had a better percentage of lung recovery on chest CT than the control (Group A-22.13; B-11.74). All these differences were statistically significant (p= <0.05) in a t-test. However, no significant survival benefit was found among the study groups in Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, p = 0.739. Conclusion: The remdesivir-tocilizumab combination had preferable outcomes compared to the dexamethasone therapy for the treatment of severe COVID-19 concerning mortality rate and clinical and pulmonary improvement, although it did not demonstrate a significant survival benefit. Clinical Trial Registration: https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT04678739.