Last Updated on June 18, 2020, 10:28 AM AST by Anthony Morris
Tests of hydroxychloroquine were halted in a World Health Organization trial of potential Covid-19 treatments.
Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malaria drug which was touted by United States President Donald Trump.
A WHO medical officer, Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo, said on Wednesday during a briefing in Geneva that WHO’s Solidarity trial’s hydroxychloroquine arm has been stopped after the advisers concluded that the drug had shown no benefit in comparison to the standards of care in reducing deaths.
Trump had touted the antimalarial drug as a treatment for the COVID-19 coronavirus since the early weeks of the global outbreak of the disease, and had called it a “game-changer,” but the prospects of the drug have faded.
The US Food and Drug Administration revoked the emergency-use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine on Monday after determining they were unlikely to treat the virus and could have dangerous side effects.
Chloroquine is a related antimalarial drug.
The WHO’s Solidarity trial is one of some trials worldwide which pit a few drugs against each other and identify those who are the most effective against COVID-19.
The trials are designed so that the ineffective drugs could be weeded out and promising new drugs can be added.
One of these experiments which are being run by the University of Oxford, released data on Tuesday, which showed that the generic, inexpensive steroid dexamethasone had improved the survival in severely ill COVID-19 patients. The only other drug which has shown benefit in a robust trial is the Gilead Sciences Inc’s remdesivir, which is an antiviral.
The controversy has swirled up around hydroxychloroquine since Trump had started promoting it.
The United States bought millions of doses, while shortages ensued for patients with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions which the drug has been shown to treat and also malaria.
Also, reports of people taking the drug preventively had come out, and President Trump had himself said that he took a course of the medication to ward off the infection after two White House staffers had contracted COVID-19 in the month of May.
Various studies have detracted and supported the effectiveness of this drug against the coronavirus. Still, until recently, few were designed in a way which would determine the benefit of the drug.
Oxford researchers have released data from a placebo-controlled trial which shows that the drug did not lower the COVID patients’ risk of death.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
