The flip-flops continue on hydroxychloroquine. The World Health Organization (WHO) finally announced, Wednesday, June 17, to suspend clinical trials on this potential treatment against the new coronavirus.

The WHO announced on June 3 its intention to resume clinical trials on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients affected by Covid-19… only ten days after having stopped them.

"The internal evidence from the Solidarity / Discovery Trial, the external evidence from the Recovery Trial, and the combined evidence from these two largely randomized trials suggests that hydroxychloroquine - when compared to usual patient treatments hospitalized for Covid-19 - does not result in reduced mortality in these patients, "said Dr. Ana Maria Henao Restrepo of WHO during a virtual press conference in Geneva.

Use as a preventive treatment not concerned

The European study Discovery is evaluating the effectiveness of four treatments for Covid-19. For Recovery, the first major clinical trial - carried out by the British University of Oxford - to have produced results, hydroxychloroquine has "no beneficial effect" in terms of Covid-19.

"On the basis of these analyzes and the study of the evidence produced (...), after deliberations, it was concluded that the weapon of hydroxychloroquine will be withdrawn from the Solidarity Test," said the doctor on Wednesday. Ana Maria Henao Restrepo.

However, it stressed that the decision to stop the trials on hospital patients with Covid-19 did not concern the use or evaluation of this molecule as a preventive treatment for disease caused by the new coronavirus.

The announcement comes two days after U.S. health authorities revoked permission to use two antimalarials for Covid-19, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, championed by President Donald Trump, in an emergency. 

France, where Professor Didier Raoult defended hydroxychloroquine, banned its use on May 28 against Covid-19. 

With AFP and Reuters

The France 24 week summary invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you! Download the France 24 app

google-play-badge_FR