The Institut Pasteur de Lille is currently testing a potentially active molecule against Covid-19.
This is an already existing antibiotic, clofoctol.
A clinical trial will be launched on more than 600 patients, and a first analysis of the results is expected around September 15.
INTERVIEW
Will there be treatment for Covid-19 soon?
The Institut Pasteur de Lille is preparing to test one to treat the disease.
It is a molecule potentially active against the virus, and does not involve side effects.
A treatment that has received the approval of the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) for the launch of a clinical trial on more than 600 patients over 50 years old and unvaccinated.
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A first analysis of the results expected around September 15
"It is clofoctol, the active principle which exhibited a very strong activity against the SARS-CoV2 virus in vitro", explains Benoit Desprez, scientific director of the Institut Pasteur de Lille, at the microphone of Europe 1. "The patients are patients who are over 50, who have recent symptoms and who are positive for Covid-19, obviously ".
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The treatment, by suppository, has been on the market for more than thirty years in France, explains the researcher, who specifies that it is still available in Italy and is used to treat bacterial infections.
"The risk of occurrence of events that would be unknown is very low," he said, adding that a first analysis of the results is expected around September 15.
In the meantime, in France, the number of hospitalizations continues to drop.
A little more than 11,000 patients, and less than 1,800 patients in the intensive care units.