This photograph, taken on July 3, 2020, shows a sign from the World Health Organization (WHO) at its headquarters in Geneva, amid the outbreak of COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus.
FACTORY COFFRINI
The World Health Organization announced on Saturday that it discontinued trials of the HIV drug combination lopinavir and ritonavir as a combination treatment for hospitalized patients with coronavirus after provisional results showed that the drugs “produce little or no reduction in mortality “of patients with Covid-19.
Several thousand patients had been included in the lopinavir / ritonavir group of the WHO-led Solidarity Trial as well as in a separate UK-led coronavirus trial of those drugs.
The solidarity trial was established by the WHO to find an effective treatment of Covid-19 for patients. He started with five arms looking at possible treatments: standard care; remdesivir; hydroxychloroquine; lopinavir / ritonavir; and lopanivir / ritonavir combined with interferon.
The WHO also said Saturday that it was discontinuing the hydroxychloroquine arm from its global study. The UN agency had previously announced that it would drop the antimalarial drug, which the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has recommended as a treatment for the virus despite multiple studies showing that it has no benefits.
“The WHO today accepted the recommendation of the International Steering Committee of the Solidarity Trial to suspend the hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir / ritonavir arms of the trial,” the WHO said in a statement.
Hydroxychloroquine is also used in rheumatoid conditions such as arthritis. The drug sparked excitement earlier this year after several small studies suggested it might be helpful in treating the coronavirus.
The WHO decision to discontinue its hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir / ritonavir studies applies only to trials in hospitalized patients with coronavirus. It does not exclude studies of the drugs in outpatients or as preventive treatments for patients before and after exposure to the coronavirus.
There are no FDA-approved drugs to treat the coronavirus, which has infected more than 11 million people worldwide and has killed at least 527,647, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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