Trump drug to be tested on NHS staff
First major UK trial of antimalarial medication will focus on reducing the chances of catching virus
Up to 10,000 NHS staff will be given the same drug that Donald Trump claims he is taking in the first major UK trial of hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19. The study, involving at least 20 NHS hospitals, aims to establish whether the cheap antimalarial drug can fend off the disease. John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton are among the first hospitals involved in the global study of 40,000 health professionals.
UP TO 10,000 NHS staff will be given the same drug that Donald Trump claims he is taking in the first major UK trial of hydroxychloroquine to prevent Covid-19.
The study, involving at least 20 NHS hospitals, aims to establish whether the cheap antimalarial drug can fend off the disease. John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton are among the first hospitals involved in the global study of 40,000 health professionals from around the world.
Researchers said they hoped to have results by the end of this year.
So far, most clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine have focused on its use in treating Covid-19 patients, and have shown mixed results.
But UK researchers said they hoped the drug may be more effective if it was used pre-emptively, to reduce the chances of catching the virus. The drug cost less than 10 pence a day, which is likely to fall further if it is given to the population en masse.
Prof Martin Llewelyn, the lead UK investigator, said healthcare professionals were being offered places on the trial because of their heightened exposure to the virus. He said: “If these drugs offer even a degree of protection it would be a very big deal. We know from previous studies that these drugs have antiviral activity, but as a treatment it seems to be relatively modest. It seems the best chance of these drugs having a role could be in prevention.”
He said hydroxychloroquine had a good safety profile, with minimal sideeffects for most people.
On Monday, the US president surprised reporters by claiming that he had started taking the malaria and lupus medication.
“I’m taking it for about a week and a half now and I’m still here, I’m still here,” he said. “You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the front-line workers before you catch it, the front-line workers, many, many are taking it,” said Mr Trump, 73. “I happen to be taking it.”
Asked about his evidence of its benefits, he said: “Here’s my evidence: I get a lot of positive calls about it.”
The US Food and Drug Administration last month warned against taking the drug for coronavirus outside of a clinical trial or hospital because it could cause abnormal heart rhythms.
Prof Llewelyn, an infectious diseases expert at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said he feared that Mr Trump’s enthusiasm for hydroxychloroquine could be counterproductive and deter some from taking part in the trial.
“It makes it very difficult,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “When you get the kind of statements we are seeing [from Trump] you get some people saying, ‘What the hell? I want to try it.’ Others start pushing back. You get a lot of publicity saying people might die, when in fact it’s very safe if used in the right way.”
Accord Healthcare, a Uk-based medicines manufacturer, has donated more than two million tablets to enable the trial to go ahead.
Dr Anthony Grosso, Accord Europe’s vice-president and head of scientific affairs, said: “A large-scale, prospective, randomised, double-blind clinical trial in a high-risk setting is the only way to robustly determine if this medicine can lessen or prevent human infection.”