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Despite hydroxychloroquine’s disappointing results in the previously mentioned small-scale study, the WHO is pushing forward with a much larger, global trial that will examine the antimalarial, along with three other drugs, for the treatment of COVID-19. The trial, called SOLIDARITY, will focus on testing the efficacy of the four most promising therapies for the disease to date: antiviral remdesivir, antimalarials chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, HIV combo drug lopinavir-ritonavir, and lopinavir-ritonavir plus interferon-beta.
Researchers are aiming to include thousands of patients across several countries. Enrolled participants will include patients with clinically confirmed COVID-19 randomized to one of the treatment options. Physicians will record the day the patient left the hospital or died, the duration of the hospital stay, and whether the patient required oxygen or ventilation. Seems simple enough, but there’s one caveat: The design is not double-blind, meaning that the placebo effect could come into play. The WHO has acknowledged that the speed of the trial will come at the cost of scientific rigor.
“It will be important to get answers quickly, to try to find out what works and what doesn’t work. We think that randomized evidence is the best way to do that,” said Ana Maria Henao Restrepo, MD, MSc, a medical officer in the WHO’s Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals.
