April 30, 2020

TT Joins WHO Study To Test Four Drugs, Including Hydroxychloroquine ,On COVID-19 Patients

By Newsroom

The Ethics Committee of both the Ministry of Health and the University of the West Indies are yet give the final  clearance for a study by The World Health Organization (WHO) to test the effect of four drugs on COVID-19 patients. The Four drugs are Hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir, Ritonavir and Interferon Beta. Patients will be invited to be part of the study and will have to sign a consent form if they agree.

The study will involve Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago according to Professor Terence Seemungal, Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI, St Augustine  (in photo) who told Thursday’s Virtual Media Briefing with the Ministry of Health that it is part of a large international trial. “It is proposed that the study be done throughout the countries in which the University of the West Indies has campuses and a committee that is chaired by one of our colleagues Professor Marvin Reid of the Mona Campus cuts across the four countries,” Professor Seemungal said.

“The study compares these drugs against what we call the usual care or the standard of care, and if someone opts to go into the study, they cannot say which line of treatment they must get, it is what we call randomized and the randomization process is done by the WHO. We hope that after this study there will be clear evidence to which of these drugs will help in the treatment of COVID-19.

Here’s an idea of the drugs that will be part of the study:

  • The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving to quickly authorize the use of experimental anti-viral drug remdesivir as an emergency treatment for coronavirus, following news that a preliminary trial of the drug showed positive results.
  • Turkey which has the biggest coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, with more than 117,000 infections and just about 3,000 deaths says the relatively low death toll is thanks to treatment protocols in the country, which includes Hydroxychloroquine and a Japanese antiviral favipiravir.
  •  The European Pharmaceutical Review is reporting that researchers found that the combination of lopinavir-ritonavir HIV antivirals led to rapid symptom improvement in COVID-19 patients.
  •  The Scottish Firm ILC has patented a new Interferon-Alpha subtype, called Interferon Alpha 14, which can be administered to patients through injection or inhalation for Severe Respiratory Syndrome like that associated with Covid-19.
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“The Solidarity Trial provides simplified procedures to enable even overloaded hospitals to participate, with no paperwork required. As of April 21 2020, over 100 countries are working together to find effective therapeutics as soon as possible, via the trial.  The greater the number of participating countries, the faster results will be generated. WHO is facilitating access to thousands of treatment courses for the trial through donations from a number of manufacturers. WHO is also inviting developers and companies to collaborate on ensuring affordability and availability of the treatment options if they prove effective,” The WHO said.

You can get more details here:   https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov/solidarity-clinical-trial-for-covid-19-treatments

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