A senior state health official stated that four cities hospitals in Gujarat will participate in the World Health Organization’s ‘Solidarity’ international clinical trial in assistance to find an effective treatment for COVID-19.

On Monday, principal health secretary, Jayanti Ravi told reporters that the trial, to be conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at hospitals in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot, will compare the efficacy of four drugs and the standard care on coronavirus patients. The four drug regimens to be tested on COVID-19 patients are - Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir or Chloroquine and Interferon. The other characteristics to be evaluated in these patients include improvement in health, mortality rate, requirement for ventilator support and adverse drug reactions.

The medical hospitals or facilities designated for the trial are - BJ Medical College and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Medical Education & Research Society Medical College in Vadodara, New Civil Hospital in Surat, and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College in Rajkot.

Jayanti Ravi informed that approximately 100 countries across the world are participating in this exercise. Four treatment options are to be compared under the trial to evaluate their relative efficacy against COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO also stated on its website that through enrolling patients in several countries, the solidarity trial has an objective to speedily discover whether any of the (four) drugs can slow the disease progression or improve survival. Other supplementary drugs can be included based on evolving evidence.

WHO is assisting access to thousands of treatment courses for the trial through donations and contributions from a number of manufacturers. They are also inviting developers and companies to join forces in ensuring affordability and availability of the different treatment options if proven effective.

Source: Financial Express