India will soon initiate clinical trials on the efficacy of four anti-viral drugs against coronavirus as a part of the World Health Organization solidarity trial, which is a fast tracked study and an initiative that offers hope for a promising cure for the COVID-19 disease.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has announced that probable anti-viral agents, Remdesivir, Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir-Ritonavir and Lopinavir-Ritonavir with Interferon (ß1a) will be assessed as part of the solidarity trial.

Except, Remdesivir, all the three drugs are generic and manufactured by Indian companies. Remdesivir is the new drug manufactured by US drug maker Gilead. In this week, the company had given voluntary license for three Indian companies to manufacture the drug for India along with 126 low income and middle income countries.

The Lopinavir-Ritonavir drugs combination are used for HIV treatment and Choloroquine / Hydroxycholoroquine drug is used to treat malaria, whereas Interferon (ß1a) to treat Hepatitis C.

The Solidarity trial launched by WHO has an objective to hastily discover whether any of the above mentioned drugs slow or prevent disease progression and improve survival of coronavirus patients. This initiative is projected to provide speed and scale to get an effective treatment. ICMR said in a statement that the Solidarity trial will provides simplified procedures to allow even overloaded hospitals to participate.

The trial has already initiated recruiting COVID-19 patients in the country at nine sites. Sheela Godbole, Senior Scientist and National Coordinator for the Solidarity trial, India said that the essential regulatory and ethical approvals are already gained and clinical trial sites have also started to recruit patients in the trial.

WHO Representative for India, Henk Bekedam, has said that with this association, Indian researchers and institutions can participate in a global initiative to discover an effective treatment options for coronavirus patients. He also added that the country plays an important role in both research and in manufacturing as soon as the trials complete successfully.

Source: ET Healthworld