Gujarat is participating in the World Health Organisation’s ‘Solidarity’ international clinical trial to help find an effective treatment for COVID-19, a senior state health official said. Hospitals across four cities in the state will take part in these clinical trials.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will conduct these trials at hospitals in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot and do a comparative analysis of the effectiveness of four drugs and standard care on coronavirus patients, according to state’s Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare) Jayanti Ravi.
Remdesivir, Lopinavir, Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine and Interferon are the four drug regimes to be tested on patients, said Ravi.
The study in such patients include improvement of health condition, mortality rate, need for ventilator support and severe drug reactions, she added.
BJ Medical College and and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Medical Education & Research Society (GMERS) Medical College in Vadodara, New Civil Hospital in Surat, and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College in Rajkot are the medical facilities selected for the trial, according to the principal secretary.
From around the world, nearly 100 countries are participating in this exercise conducted by the WHO.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), four treatment options will be compared under the trial to assess their relative effectiveness against COVID-19.
“By enrolling patients in multiple countries, the solidarity trial aims to rapidly discover whether any of the (four) drugs slow disease progression or improve survival. Other drugs can be added based on emerging evidence,” the WHO says on its website.
According to WHO’s website, it is facilitating access to thousands of treatment courses for the trial through donations from a number of manufacturers, and also inviting developers and companies to collaborate on ensuring affordability and availability of the treatment options if they prove effective.