Virus trials on hold

Health bosses stall research into drug over safety concerns

World Health Organisation said on Monday it had temporarily suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus.

The decision came after a study published in The Lancet medical journal last week suggested the drug could increase the risk of death among COVID-19 patients, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.

Mr Tedros said the executive group of the Solidarity Trial, in which hundreds of hospitals worldwide have enrolled patients to test possible treatments for coronavirus, had suspended trials using that drug as a precaution.

“The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroThe arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board,” Mr Tedros said. “The other arms of the trial are continuing.”

Hydroxychloroquine is normally used to treat arthritis but public figures including US President Donald Trump have backed the drug as a virus treatment, prompting governments to bulk buy.

Mr Trump said last week he was taking the drug as a preventative measure, but in an interview aired on Sunday on Sinclair Broadcasting he said he had completed his course.

Brazil’s health minister also recommended last week using hydroxychloroquine, as well as the anti-malarial chloroquine, to treat COVID-19 cases.

The Lancet study found that both drugs could produce poquine tentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia.

And neither drug helped patients hospitalised with COVID-19, according to the study, which looked at the records of 96,000 patients across hundreds of hospitals.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said suspending enrolment for trials using hydroxychloroquine was “a temporary measure”.