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Doctors look at options for drugs to treat COVID-19

Roswell Park is working on clinical trials, but nothing would be available until an intense review process.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — More cases of COVID-19 are being diagnosed and doctors are currently working to find a pharmaceutical drug that could treat those patients.

2 On Your Side spoke with a doctor at Roswell Comprehensive Cancer Center about what options were currently being considered. 

Dr. James Mohler is is a urologist and Senior Vice President for Translational Research at Roswell. He explained that there are doctors across the country who are trying to both develop a new drug and exploring what medicine is currently available.  

Mohler explained that instead of preventing, the research efforts are mostly focusing on how to treat people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, in order to make sure their health does not deteriorate. 

"What we need is treatments for those patients who are hospitalized then more importantly become ventilator dependent. So with our limitation of intensive care unit beds and ventilators, we need an effective drug that can prevent people from reaching the most severe forms of COVID-19", he told 2 On Your Side's Karys Belger in a phone interview Friday. 

Mohler explained that one of the drugs being considered is Chloroquine, which is typically administered to help prevent malaria. He also said doctors at Roswell are looking at immunotherapy options, similar to what's used in cancer treatments.

"We’ve learned a lot about immunotherapy in the field of cancer," said Mohler. "But many people are doing is applying that approach to people who have severe forms of COVID-19 and we at Roswell park are pursuing those options right now."

Mohler says he's hoping clinical trials will begin in a week but nothing finite would be made available until intense research and testing was complete.  

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