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Three drugs will be added to the UN agency’s global trials to test their efficacy on COVID-19 hospitalized patients.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will test three new drugs as potential treatments for severely ill hospitalized patients with COVID-19 while expanding its global trials to 52 countries.
The independent expert panel chose artesunate, imatinib, and infliximab for three treatments because of their potential to reduce the risk of death in hospitalized patients. Artesunate is currently used to treat severe malaria, imatinib is used to treat certain cancers, and infliximab is used to treat immune system diseases such as Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement: “Finding more effective and accessible treatments for COVID-19 patients remains a critical need, and WHO is proud to lead this global effort. “These drugs are donated by the manufacturer to the trial.
The WHO completed the first phase of the so-called solidarity trial last year, working with countries around the world to find effective treatments for the new coronavirus, and assessing their impact on mortality, no matter how small. The new phase of the trial involves 600 hospitals in 52 countries—16 more than the initial phase—and thousands of patients.
The trial has evaluated four drugs and the results show Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon have little or no effect on people admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19.
As the experiment expands, the world is battling a new pandemic driven by the highly spread variant of Delta. Countries that failed to vaccinate a large part of their population have been hit particularly hard.
So far, WHO has only recommended two treatments for COVID-19—— Interleukin 6 receptor blocker, Recommended last month, and corticosteroids. A test conducted in the UK last year found that dexamethasone is a cheap and widely used steroid. Reduce the risk of death by a third For patients using ventilators.
Countries participating in the new trial include Canada, Finland, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Three new drugs:
Artesunate
Artesunate is produced by Ipca and is currently used to treat malaria. The WHO stated that in the Solidarity trial, it will use the standard dose recommended for the treatment of severe malaria intravenously for 7 days.
Artesunate is a derivative of artemisinin, which is an antimalarial drug extracted from Artemisia annua. Artemisinin and its derivatives have been widely used to treat malaria and other parasitic diseases for more than 30 years and are considered very safe. The WHO COVID-19 Treatment Advisory Group recommends evaluating the anti-inflammatory properties of artesunate.
Imatinib
Imatinib is produced by Novartis and is used to treat certain cancers. The WHO stated that patients participating in the trial will take the drug once a day for 14 days.
Imatinib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor formulated as an oral chemotherapy drug. Experimental and early clinical data have shown that imatinib can reverse pulmonary capillary leakage, and a randomized clinical trial conducted in the Netherlands reported that imatinib may bring clinical benefits to hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Infliximab
Infliximab produced by Johnson & Johnson is used to treat immune system diseases. The United Nations agency said that for the trial, it will be administered as a single-dose intravenous injection based on the long-term standard dose given to patients with Crohn’s disease.
Infliximab is a TNFα inhibitor, and this type of biological agent has been approved for the treatment of certain autoimmune inflammations for more than 20 years. It has shown good efficacy and safety in limiting broad-spectrum inflammation, including the elderly who are clinically most susceptible to COVID-19.
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