(Adds interview with researcher)
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - British doctors are trialling a
formulation of anti-inflammatory ibuprofen to see if it reduces
respiratory failure in patients with severe symptoms of
COVID-19.
The trial involves a particular formulation of ibuprofen,
which researchers said had been shown to be more effective than
standard ibuprofen for treating severe acute respiratory
distress syndrome (ARDS), a complication of COVID-19.
The formulation is already licensed for use in Britain for
other conditions.
"If successful, the global public health value of this trial
result would be immense given the low cost and availability of
this medicine," said Matthew Hotopf, director of NIHR Maudsley
Biomedical Research Centre.
The trial, known as "LIBERATE", will be a randomised study,
with recruitment of up to 230 patients expected over the coming
months.
It is being run by Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
in London, King's College London (KCL) and pharmaceutical
organisation the SEEK Group.
In March, France's health minister said people should not
use anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen if they have
symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
However, U.S., British and European Union drug regulators as
well as Reckitt Benckiser, which makes Nurofen, have all
said there is no evidence that ibuprofen makes COVID-19 worse.
Mitul Mehta, director of KCL's Centre for Innovative
Therapeutics, said that possible well-known gastric side effects
from ibuprofen meant that paracetamol was better to relieve
COVID-19 symptoms in its early stages.
But he added there was no evidence to back up the French
claims that ibuprofen worsens COVID-19 symptoms, saying the
formulation being used in the trial should lessen the possible
side effects.
"There's no way these early reports would've been talking
about this different formulation," Mehta told Reuters.
"The trial is the right forum in which to test the side
effects and to test the efficacy."
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Emelia
Sithole-Matarise and Ed Osmond)
