SWFL clinical trial underway to relieve COVID symptoms

A new trial to relieve symptoms of COVID-19 is taking place in Southwest Florida.

Vanguard Clinical Research is conducting the therapeutic trial of an oral medication used to relieve symptoms for people with a mild to moderate infection. Not all participants have to have the coronavirus to participate.

Some people never even know they have COVID-19, but for others, “The ones that have had severe symptoms say that it is absolutely horrible, unbearable,” said Brian Wardynski, owner of Vanguard Clinical Research.

Wardynski and his team work to ease that suffering by doing what they do best.

“The only thing that brings the end in sight is the research,” he said.

The company is now in phase three trials to see if a certain medication can reduce COVID-19 symptoms. The hope is that the drug can stop the virus from replicating inside the body, but researchers can’t do it alone.

“The research has been approved for 100 patients. Those are people who either think they have COVID-19, for which they’ll be tested, or they may have a common cold,” said Dr. Alan Tannenbaum, medical director of the clinical research team at Vanguard Clinical Research.

Tannenbaum said that through a blood draw and physical exam, researchers will determine what causes a patient’s symptoms. After that, they’ll either get a placebo or the antiviral medication.

“The medicine is taken by mouth. It’s pretty quick – you take it for about seven days or so. There really are no side effects,” he explained.

And whether or not the medication ends up reducing COVID symptoms,  “They’re helping their fellow man; they’re doing something altruistic for society. It may be that they are a part of something phenomenal,” Tannenbaum said.

Vanguard isn’t identifying the drug. They’re recruiting participants right now: 100 people with COVID or cold-like symptoms.

For information on how to sign up, call 407-446-7559.