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This medication reduces hospitalizations by 25% and deaths by 44%, according to the preliminary results of an international trial with more than 4.000 patients.
In Spain there are nine clinical trials underway to study colchicine as a possible treatment against covid-19, according to the registry of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products. The results of the trials are coming to light and one of them, led by the director of international research, Jean-Claude Tardif, from the Montreal Institute of Cardiology (Canada), reveals that the use of this medication was associated with 25% reduction in hospitalizations, while the need for mechanical ventilation was reduced by 50% and deaths by 44%, compared to people who received placebo.
The clinical trial has included more than 4.000 volunteers over 40 years of age from Canada, the USA, Spain, South Africa, Brazil and Greece, with confirmed coronavirus and with some risk factor, such as obesity, hypertension or heart disease. The participants basically took one tablet a day for a month, at home.
What is colchicine?
Colchicine belongs to a group of medicines known as "antigout" (which treat gout) and comes in the form of tablets for oral administration. It is effective in patients who have been recently diagnosed. According to the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), it is a "drug that is used" in the treatment of acute attacks of gout and chronic gout, prevention of acute attacks by starting treatment with other medications that cause a decrease in uric acid in blood and urine, and periodic illness (familial Mediterranean fever).”
Tardif stated this January in a statement that colchicine is “the first oral medication in the world whose use could have a significant impact on public health and, potentially, prevent the complications of covid-19 in millions of patients.”
Mechanism of action of colchicine
It reduces the inflammatory response resulting from the deposition of urate crystals in the joints, since it reduces the leukocyte flow, inhibits the phagocytosis of urate microcrystals, thereby reducing the production of lactic acid, avoiding an acidic pH, and thus the precipitation of urate crystals.
