Swiss firm Novartis to halt clinical trial of HCQ as a treatment for COVID-19

Swiss firm Novartis on June 19 announced that it has made the decision to stop and discontinue its sponsored hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) clinical trial for COVID-19 due to acute enrollment challenges that have made trial completion infeasible. Hydroxychloroquine is being studied to prevent or treat coronavirus patients across the world.

Read: WHO Halts Trial Of Hydroxychloroquine, Says Drug Not Effective In COVID-19 Treatment

"The recruitment challenge facing our HCQ trial has made it unlikely that the clinical team will be able to collect meaningful data in a reasonable timeframe to determine the effectiveness of HCQ in treating patients with COVID-19. No safety issues have been reported, and there are no conclusions on efficacy from the study. Novartis will continue to provide the supply of HCQ for ongoing investigator-initiated trials (IITs) and upon government requests, as appropriate, where certain conditions are met and the medicine is used in accordance with a nationally endorsed treatment protocol," Novartis said in a statement released on its website. 

Read: Brazil Recommends Hydroxychloroquine For Children, Pregnant Women Despite FDA's Caution

Novartis on April 20 announced that it had reached an agreement with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to proceed with a Phase III clinical trial with approximately 440 patients to evaluate the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 disease. The clinical trial drug supply was supposed to be provided by Sandoz, the generics and biosimilars division of Novartis.

Read: US FDA Withdraws Emergency Use Authorisation Of Chloroquine And Hydroxychloroquine

What do others say?

On May 22, a study published in the medical journal The Lancet suggested that the drug did not benefit in the treatment of coronavirus patients, the study was later retracted by its authors. The WHO on June 17 announced that it will be stopping the trial of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) saying that the drug is not effective in COVID-19 treatment. 

Read: No Beneficial Effect Of Hydroxychloroquine For COVID-19: UK Trial

(Image Credit: AP)