London, December 11, 2011 : .Researchers discovered that Covid-19 can be prevented by a medication currently being used for malaria.
The medicine Atovaquone has a protective effect both before and after infection with the coronavirus in human cells in the laboratory, which means that it can in all probability be used both for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19, said researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark.
Atovaquone has already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
As part of the medication Malarone, it has been used for the treatment and prevention of malaria since 1999.
David Olagnier Associate Professor, Department of Biomedicine said that “This exciting study has demonstrated that Atovaquone can protect lung cells from several coronavirus variants” and added:
“Being able to use already approved medicines against Covid-19 would be ideal, because it would save both time and resources during the developmental phase,” he added.
For the researchers, the ability of Atovaquone to block infection across different viral variants (both the Alpha, Beta and Delta variants) has been particularly important, together with the fact that the medicine can reduce the inflammatory response which is known to contribute to the development of Covid-19.
They also plan to examine whether it has any effect on the Omicron-related variant.
However, although the study reveals Atovaquone’s potent effect against the virus in a petri dish, it cannot directly confirm the effectiveness of the drug against Covid-19 in a human body.
The research must first be validated in two clinical trials with patients.
Both trials began in 2020 and both are testing Atovaquone in combination with the drug azithromycin in patients with confirmed Covid-19.
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