Is famotidine effective against COVID-19?

Use of famotidine does not reduce the risk of COVID-19 outcomes among hospitalized patients as compared with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) or hydroxychloroquine, as shown in recent study.

The investigators identified a total of 2,193 users of PPI, 5,950 users of hydroxychloroquine, 1,816 users of famotidine, and 26,820 nonusers of famotidine.

After propensity score stratification, the hazard ratios (HRs) for death with famotidine compared with other therapies were as follows: vs no famotidine (HR, 1.03, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.89–1.18), vs PPIs (HR, 1.14, 95 percent CI, 0.94–1.39), and vs hydroxychloroquine (HR, 1.03, 95 percent CI, 0.85–1.24). Results were similar for the risk of death or intensive services use.

In this retrospective cohort study, the investigators used data from COVID-19 Premier Hospital electronic health records of hospitalized patients (aged ≥18 years).

Famotidine, PPI, and hydroxychloroquine exposure groups were defined as patients dispensed any medication containing one of the three drugs on the day of admission. The famotidine nonuser group was drawn from the same source population with no history of exposure to any drug with famotidine as an active ingredient before or on the day of admission.

Time at risk was defined based on intention-to-treat principle starting 1 day after admission to 30 days after admission. The investigators generated a propensity score model for each study comparison group through large-scale regularized logistic regression. The outcome was modeled using a survival model.