Geneva (AFP)

More than 130 therapies are being studied as part of research against Covid-19, said Thursday the International Federation of the Medicines Industry (IFPMA).

Unprecedented collaborative efforts in the pharmaceutical industry have greatly accelerated the search for safe and effective treatments for the new coronavirus.

"More than 130 therapies against Covid-19 are under study," said IFPMA director general Thomas Cueni at a virtual press conference with several pharmaceutical company leaders who detailed their work on different therapies, such as antimalarials, antivirals and immunotherapies.

Mr. Cueni explained that 68 of them were new therapies, the others being already existing drugs whose effectiveness was tested against the new coronavirus.

Most are still in the early stages of testing, he said, adding that more than 25 clinical trials have already started.

Leaving China in December, the epidemic has infected nearly 3.2 million people worldwide and left nearly 230,000 dead despite the confinement of more than half of humanity, according to a compilation of official reports established by AFP.

Experts have warned that only one vaccine will fully lift containment measures, but finding and developing a safe and effective vaccine could take a year or more.

Cueni said the development of an effective treatment for this disease should go faster. His remarks come as the American laboratory Gilead announced that his drug remdesivir had accelerated the recovery of the most serious cases by several days in a large clinical trial.

Jose Baselga, executive vice president of AstraZeneca, warned him against rushing too hard to find a cure. "We need to have well-controlled trials," he said, stressing that care should be taken to do "randomized trials with placebo control".

"If you save, we will find out at the end of the day that we have data that we cannot interpret," he said.

This is the problem that has arisen so far with hydroxychloroquine, recognized Richard Saynor, who heads Sandoz, a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis, which is sponsoring a clinical study on this treatment.

Hydroxychloroquine has shown promise against Covid-19 in small-scale studies in France and China to reduce virus levels in severely infected people, and it was presented by US President Donald Trump as a possible "gift from God" against the pandemic.

But its effectiveness has been questioned, and serious concerns have also been raised about possible serious side effects.

© 2020 AFP