UCI Health is launching a phase 2b/3 clinical study of Aviptadil as a potential COVID-19 treatment.
The drug has a history of being used in clinical trials for lung problems, and researchers will look into if Aviptadil can help patients who have COVID-19 and who have acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Researchers will look at up to 30 hospitalized patients at UCI Medical Center who have ARDS due to COVID-19 and who require intubation and mechanical ventilation, according to a press release on the study.
Aviptadil helps target cytokine molecules in the lungs, which COVID-19 can escalate into a dangerous cytokine storm.
University of California, Irvine (UCI), the University of Miami and Thomas Jefferson University are the three sites for the Aviptadil clinical trial, which will ultimately have 120 patients included in the trial.
"This study will focus on patients for whom mortality is alarmingly high," said Dr. Richard Lee, interim chief of UCI Health's Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine and the principal investigator for the clinical trial. "If successful, we hope that treatments such as Aviptadil may change the chances of survival for these patients."
The estimated completion for the clinical trial is later this year.