New COVID-19 drug trial

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston remains at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. Dr. Bentley J. Bobrow, Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, and Dr. Holger K. Eltzschig, Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology are co-principal investigators of a study evaluating the use of an investigational drug, vadadustat, as potential therapy to lessen the severity of COVID-19.

This investigator-sponsored study evaluates the use of vadadustat, an investigational drug from Akebia Therapeutics, Inc, as a potential treatment to prevent and decrease the severity of the most severe respiratory complications of COVID-19 infections.

The study will evaluate up to 300 adult patients hospitalized at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center for low oxygen levels due to COVID-19.

“The prevalence of COVID-19 in Houston has recently surged and we are excited to be working toward developing better treatment options at UTHealth,” said Dr. Bentley J. Bobrow. “Right now, we can support patients with COVID-related ARDS with supplemental oxygen and different forms of ventilation, but don’t yet have effective treatments to protect their lungs and help them get better. Our goal is to prevent patients with the virus from progressing to requiring a ventilator and, if they do require a ventilator, to decrease the time they are on that ventilator. We are thrilled to collaborate with Akebia on this study of vadadustat.”

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