WHO to test three new coronavirus drugs, Argentina to participate in trials – Telam

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the completion of a new international trial, Solidarity More, to test three new drugs in hospitalized patients with coronavirus in more than 50 countries, including Argentina under the coordination of the doctor specializing in infectious diseases Gustavo Lopardo.

These are the drugs artesunate, imatinib and infliximab that “were selected by a panel of independent experts for their potential to reduce the risk of death in hospitalized patients with Covid-19,” the agency reported.

Treatments are already being used for other indications: artesunate is used for severe malaria, imatinib for certain cancers, and infliximab for pathologies of the immune system such as Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

Solidarity PLUS is a trial that represents the largest global collaboration between WHO Member States and involves thousands of researchers in more than 600 hospitals in 52 countries, 16 more than those who participated in the first phase of testing called Solidarity.

“From Argentina, the Posadas, Ramos Meja, Luciano and Mariano de la Vega de Moreno, Bernardo Houssay de Vicente Lpez, Muiz hospitals, and other health centers that wish to join, ”he told Tlam Lopardo.

Solidarity PLUS is a trial that represents the largest global collaboration between WHO Member States, involving thousands of researchers in more than 600 hospitals in 52 countries.“

Lopardo, who is part of the International Committee of Solidarity Plus and independent national coordinator of the trial in Argentina, explained that “the drugs are supplied by the laboratories” and that “the studies will begin once they have the approval of the Annat “.

“So far the only country that has started recruiting patients is Finland. We hope to start here as soon as possible, it is important to note that the mechanisms are much more oiled than in the first trial because we have acquired experience, ”he described. .

First try

Over the past year, the Solidarity trial evaluated four drugs and “the results showed that remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon had little or no effect in hospitalized patients with Covid -19, “the WHO said in the statement.

In this study, 10 public hospitals in the metropolitan area of ​​Buenos Aires (AMBA), Cordoba, Chaco and Santa Fe participated in this study “because when the health centers were chosen, these were the regions where there were community circulation of the virus, “Lopardo recalled. in dialogue with Tlam.

In Solidarity PLUS, “all people over 18 who are hospitalized with a laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 in one of the hospitals that make up the study” can participate.

“All hospitalized patients can be included regardless of the degree of severity of the clinical picture; it goes from one who is in a common room with bilateral pneumonia to one who is in intensive care with mechanical ventilation”, specifies the specialist.

And he stressed that “the hard objective of Solidarity Plus is to analyze whether the drugs are used to reduce mortality and that is why the number of participating patients must be very high, because with few cases, for example a study of 300 patients, you can not draw a conclusion. “

Once the patient has given informed consent, they enter the trial and a random assignment of their treatment is generated (using an algorithm that ensures the final balance between each study drug and its witnesses).

Patients will be randomly assigned to the standard of care or to one of the study drugs (artesunate, imatinib, and infliximab).

“Last year we were all focused on treatments because we thought vaccines would take a long time. Today, it shouldn’t happen that because of the great success of vaccines, we put aside the search for a cure. because only smallpox has been eradicated from the world with a vaccine, but it has taken two centuries, while polio is on the verge of being eradicated and we have had vaccines for more than 70 years ”, explained the infectologist .

“I mean by that that It would be utopian to think that it is only with the vaccine that the disease will disappear. The enormous tragedy of the death toll that we have had will surely go away with time, but the virus will continue to exist and having good therapeutic tools is very important, “he added.

Complex disease

Finally, when asked about the reasons why it takes time to find therapeutic alternatives against Covid-19, Lopardo assured that “it probably has to do with the fact that the pathophysiology of the disease is very complex, it begins with the viral replication but then an exacerbation of a response is generated from the immune system (the cytokine storm) and so far it has not been easy to figure out how to intervene at each stage. “

“Probably, as more is learned about the pathophysiology of Covid-19, better treatment alternatives can be found“, he concluded.

In addition to Argentina, Albania, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia and Finland will participate in Solidarity Plus.

Georgia, Guyana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mal, Mexico, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Omn, Pakistan will also participate. , Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Spain, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe.