Chennai: Aspirin is being investigated in the world’s largest clinical trial of treatments for patients hospitalised with Covid-19.
The Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY (RECOVERY) trial is happening in 176 hospital sites across the UK, and has so far recruited over 16,000 patients.
Professor Peter Horby, from the Nuffield Department of Medicine, co-Chief Investigator of the RECOVERY trial, said, “We felt it was particularly important to add aspirin to the trial since there is a clear rationale for believing that it might be beneficial and it is safe, inexpensive and widely available. We are looking for medicines for Covid-19 that can be used immediately by anyone, anywhere in the world. We do not know if aspirin is such a medicine but we will find out.”
Covid-19 patients are at higher risk of blood clots forming in their blood vessels. Small cell fragments, platelets in the blood that stop bleeding, seem to be hyperreactive in Covid-19 and may be involved in the clotting complications. Since Aspirin is an antiplatelet agent, it is likely to reduce the risk of blood clots in patients with Covid-19.
It is expected that at least 2,000 patients will be randomly allocated to receive aspirin 150 mg daily plus usual standard-of-care, and results will be compared with at least 2,000 patients who receive standard-of-care on its own.