(Reuters - AstraZeneca Plc is testing one of its diabetes drugs as a treatment for COVID-19, even as doctors are advising diabetes patients infected by the coronavirus to stop taking the medicine and others like it because of a potentially dangerous side effect.
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a sign at an AstraZeneca site in Macclesfield, central England May 19, 2014. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
The trial of 900 hospitalized patients, dubbed DARE-19, will test Farxiga against a placebo with results expected by December. The international study began in April. If successful, doctors will have to weigh the benefits to COVID-19 patients against the risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, a type of blood poisoning that can lead to coma or death that has been linked to SGLT2 inhibitors.
“I’ve already seen a patient with type 2 diabetes on one of these drugs develop ketoacidosis with a COVID-19 infection,” said Dr. Anne Peters, director of the clinical diabetes program at the University of Southern California. She is advising patients who test positive to stop taking the drugs to reduce the risk of ketoacidosis. “It’s something that we can prevent if people know about it.”
AstraZeneca, which is also testing a high-profile vaccine to prevent infection by the coronavirus with the University of Oxford, said “there currently isn’t data on the use of dapagliflozin in patients being treated for COVID-19.” The DARE-19 trial will determine if there are benefits, the British drugmaker said.
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