A woman holds two pills in her hand Share on Pinterest
Fluvoxamine is one of several drugs that appear to exist constructive in treating COVID-19. Cavan Images/Getty Images
  • Researchers say the drug fluvoxamine is effective equally an outpatient treatment for COVID-xix.
  • Experts say fluvoxamine could widen admission to COVID-nineteen treatments, although they wait information technology to be a somewhat minor tool in the medical customs's toolkit.
  • They too note that more studies need to exist done on fluvoxamine'due south effectiveness against the Omicron variant.

Fluvoxamine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) commonly used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, could find another employ as a condom treatment for COVID-xix.

A meta-analysis of three previous trials on the drug's effectiveness for COVID-19 treatment found "a high probability of existence associated with reduced hospitalization in outpatients with COVID-19," a new report led by researchers from McGill University in Quebec, Canada, establish.

The researchers report that fluvoxamine treatment appeared to reduce the adventure of astringent COVID-19 by about 25 pct if given to people at high chance for COVID-19 early in the course of their infection.

That'due south significantly less effective than some current COVID-19 antiviral treatments, such every bit Pfizer's antiviral pill, Paxlovid. That drug has been shown to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 by as much as 89 pct if taken within three days afterwards the onset of symptoms.

Yet, "specially in resources-express settings or for individuals without access to SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody therapy or direct antivirals," fluvoxamine might provide an easily accessible alternative, the written report authors write.

The fact that the drug is widely available and with a large amount of safety data is another potential benefit since information technology was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1994.

But how might a drug used to care for obsessive-compulsive disorder also work against COVID-19?

While fluvoxamine belongs to the SSRI class of drugs that includes Prozac or Zoloft, "chemically it is unrelated to these other drugs," said Dr. David Cutler, a family medicine doc at Providence Saint John'due south Wellness Center in California.

"In the test tube, fluvoxamine activates the sigma-i receptor within cells. This action has been found to inhibit replication of the COVID virus (SARS-CoV-2)," Cutler told Healthline. "In improver, sigma-1 activation tin modulate the inflammatory response to serious infection in animals."

However, fifty-fifty with this meta-assay in hand, experts say fluvoxamine is probable to be a minor tool with which to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Many existing drugs accept been used to treat COVID and often initial reports evidence success," Cutler said. "This may hold truthful for fluvoxamine, but information technology has non proven to be the case for numerous other drugs similar hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, ivermectin, vitamin D, and others which were proclaimed beneficial with smashing fanfare and later on proven useless."

Amichai Perlman, Ph.D., a pharma domain expert at digital healthcare company K Health, agreed, noting that fifty-fifty with iii studies for meta-analysis, the findings require further investigation.

"Because the 3rd trial was larger and also had many more patients who deteriorated, the results of the meta-analysis primarily reflect the results of this report," Perlman told Healthline. "There are conflicting opinions regarding the 'Together' report [the 3rd study in the study]. In its final update, the NIH listed several difficulties interpreting the results of the study and concluded that at that place is insufficient bear witness to recommend either for or against its apply for COVID-19."

There's also business that these studies took place before the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-xix, which has rendered ineffective sure prior treatments, such as GlaxoSmithKline'southward sotrovimab. That newfound inefficacy led to the FDA revoking its emergency apply dominance for the drug.

Fluvoxamine would probable need to clear a hurdle of effectiveness against Omicron to receive FDA blessing.

"This small do good [from this report] may have seemed like particularly good news before newer, highly effective therapies became available," Cutler added. "While fluvoxamine has an advantage of existence inexpensive and a long safety tape, it cannot evangelize anywhere nigh the proven benefit of Paxlovid and the monoclonal antibodies."