The World Health Organization, after temporarily suspending hydroxychloroquine clinical trial is all set to resume trials once again. The director-general of WHO said that experts had reviewed the safety data and were now recommending the trial continue as planned which means doctors will soon be able to resume giving the drug to patients enrolled in the UN health agency’s study.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking at a virtual press conference, said that experts have been reviewing data and recommended that there are no reasons to modify trial protocol. The Executive Group received this recommendation and endorsed continuation of all arms of the Solidarity Trial, including hydroxychloroquine.
Earlier, The Lancet issued an “expression of concern” over a large-scale study of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine which concluded that treatment with hydroxychloroquine showed no benefit and even increased the likelihood of patients dying in hospital. As a result, WHO paused clinical trials.
Hydroxychloroquine has been a controversial drug touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a cure for COVID-19, but previous studies have found it ineffective and could cause multiple risks, including increased risk of death. Some studies had suggested that people who were taking the drug for COVID-19 had a higher chance of dying than those who were not.
Hydroxychloroquine was first synthesized in 1946 and is in a class of medications historically used to treat and prevent malaria, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, childhood arthritis, and other autoimmune diseases.
