Montefiore launches trial for pill used to treat and possibly prevent COVID-19

Doctors are specifically looking for patients who are unvaccinated and were very recently exposed to COVID-19.

News 12 Staff

Nov 9, 2021, 12:51 AM

Updated 1,059 days ago

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Could preventing COVID-19 be as simple as taking a single pill? That’s what Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine is currently studying.
They are enrolling patients in a clinical trial for an anti-viral pill called Molnupiravir.
Doctors are specifically looking for patients who are unvaccinated and were very recently exposed to COVID-19.
Currently, the only authorized treatments for COVID-19 are intravenous – so doctors say the pill could be a gamechanger.
“It reduced hospitalization or death in the people who got Molnupiravir and, in fact, there were no deaths with people who got Molnupiravir,” says Dr. Barry Zingman, the principal investigator for the Montefiore-Einsten trial.
He says an oral pill would “revolutionize the treatment” and potentially the prevention of the virus as well.
Doctors say the best protection against COVID-19 is getting vaccinated.
Montefiore is the only hospital in New York running the pill trials.
For those looking to get involved with the trial, email ID_CTU@montefiore.org or call (718)-920-5224.