Australian clot-busting drug holds hope for COVID-19 treatment

FILE PHOTO: A nurse checks a patient's temperature in a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing clinic at Westmead Hospital in Sydney, Australia, May 12, 2020. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An experimental drug developed by an Australian researcher could help prevent deaths from COVID-19 by controlling the formation of blood clots responsible for breathing difficulties, organ failure, stroke and heart attack.

Professor Shaun Jackson from the University of Sydney and the Heart Research Institute is leading a team of researchers developing a new anti-clotting medicine to treat stroke.