The World Health Organisation on Saturday announced that it has stopped its trials of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of patients infected by the coronavirus.
The WHO said it “accepted the recommendation” to discontinue trials with hydroxychloroquine and combination of HIV drugs lopinavir/ritonavir on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 as they failed to reduce the death rate caused by the infection, reports said.
“These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients when compared to the standard of care. Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect,” the WHO said in a statement.
The health agency added that while there was no “solid evidence” of increased mortality for hospitalised patients given the drugs, there were “some associated safety signals in the clinical laboratory findings” of an associated trial.
WHO says the decision won’t affect possible trials on patients who aren't hospitalized, or on those receiving the drugs before potential exposure to the coronavirus or shortly afterward.
The organisation had declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in March. So far, over 11 million people have been infected by the deadly virus, with over 533,000 deaths reported worldwide. More than 6.4 million have recovered from the respiratory infection.
(With inputs from agencies)
