University Hospitals is leading a clinical trial that involves the administration of an investigational drug, ARMS-I, to its caregivers working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported on Thursday.

The trial is named the ARMS-I COVID Study and is intended to evaluate whether the drug helps to prevent airborne transmission of coronavirus and whether it decreases the symptoms of healthcare providers who have tested positive for the virus. In laboratory studies, ARMS-I has been shown to kill enveloped viruses, including influenza. COVID-19 is also an enveloped virus. The preclinical data are encouraging, but studies in humans are necessary to determine whether the product is effective against specific pathogens.

The UH Clinical Research Center will conduct the study with Robert Salata, MD, chairman of the Department of Medicine at UH Cleveland Medical Center, program director of the UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health and Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and International Health at Case Western Reserve University, serving as the principal investigator. University Hospitals will serve as the coordinating site for the trial with other Northeast Ohio health systems participating as additional sites for recruitment. UH trial participants will include clinical staff who are directly caring for patients.

This trial is a randomised placebo-controlled crossover study and during the course of the trial, everyone will get the investigational drug even if they started with the placebo.