By Peter Samore | KTAR
A group of Arizona doctors believes two well-known drugs could team up to make one treatment to fight the coronavirus.
Arizona-based Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) will run a clinical trial with HonorHealth and 25 of its sickest COVID-19 patients, doctors from both entities announced in an online video conference Tuesday.
Atovaquone, which is an anti-malarial drug, and the antibiotic, azithromycin, commonly known as Z-Pak, fight pneumonia and other viruses.
“In case they ended up in the ICU, intubated and on a ventilator, where we could continue to administer the drug without having to change the formulation,” Dr. Michael Gordon, medical director at HonorHealth Research Institute, said.