WHO sees first results from Covid drug trials within two weeks

A man wearing a face mask and gloves to protect from coronavirus walks past a recently painted mural by professional street artist David Speed and the Graffiti Life collective to show appreciation for the people who work in the NHS (National Health Service), in east London. Picture: Matt Dunham/AP

A man wearing a face mask and gloves to protect from coronavirus walks past a recently painted mural by professional street artist David Speed and the Graffiti Life collective to show appreciation for the people who work in the NHS (National Health Service), in east London. Picture: Matt Dunham/AP

Published Jul 3, 2020

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GENEVA/LONDON - The World Health

Organization should soon get results from clinical trials

it is conducting of drugs that might be effective in treating

Covid-19 patients, its Director General Tedros Adhanom

Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

"Nearly 5,500 patients in 39 countries have so far been

recruited into the Solidarity trial," he told a news briefing,

referring to clinical studies the UN agency is conducting.

"We expect interim results within the next two weeks."

The Solidarity Trial started out in five parts looking at

possible treatment approaches to Covid-19: standard care;

remdesivir; the anti-malaria drug touted by US President

Donald Trump, hydroxychloroquine; the HIV drugs

lopinavir/ritonavir; and lopanivir/ritonavir combined with

interferon.

Earlier this month, it stopped the arm testing

hydroxychloroquine, after studies indicated it showed no benefit

in those who have the disease, but more work is still needed to

see whether it may be effective as a preventative medicine.

Mike Ryan, head of the WHO's emergencies programme, said it

would be unwise to predict when a vaccine could be ready against

COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel

coronavirus that has killed more than half a million people.

While a vaccine candidate might show its effectiveness by

year's end, the question was how soon it could be mass produced,

he told the U.N. journalists' association ACANU in Geneva.

There is no proven vaccine against the disease now, while

18 potential candidates are being tested on humans.

WHO officials defended their response to the virus that

emerged in China last year, saying they had been driven by the

science as it developed. Ryan said what he regretted was that

global supply chains had broken, depriving medical staff of

protective equipment.

"I regret that there wasn't fair, accessible access to Covid tools. I regret that some countries had more than others, and I

regret that front-line workers died because of (that)," he said.

He urged countries to get on with identifying new clusters

of cases, tracking down infected people and isolating them to

help break the transmission chain.

"People who sit around coffee tables and speculate and talk

(about transmission) don't achieve anything. People who go after

the virus achieve things," he said. 

Reuters

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