Researchers are testing an old valley fever drug for a new purpose. The clinical trial is scheduled to start in the next few months in Phoenix, Tucson and California.
The study of the drug fluconazole will test up to 1,000 patients who start to exhibit symptoms of valley fever pneumonia. A portion of the participants will be given the antifungal medicine, which has been used to treat complications associated with the disease.
Dr. John Galgiani, director of the Valley Fever Center for Excellence, said the clinical trial will test whether the drug if given at the start of the disease will help patients recover more quickly.
“It’s actually been available in pharmacies since 1990,” he said. “[This] is one of the fundamental studies you might think of doing being done 25 years after the drug was released on the market.”
The National Institutes of Health is funding the three-year study.
