The search for experimental treatments to deal with COVID-19 is well underway. After the Solidarity project coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), an exclusively European project called Discovery has been created. Launched on Sunday 22 March, it will be implemented with 3,200 European patients in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain.
Like Solidarity, this trial will conduct a large scale study of four treatments based on the following molecules: remdesivir, lopinavir in combination with ritonavir both with and without interferon beta, and hydroxychloroquine, a series of experimental treatments classified as priorities by the WHO.
Tests with hydroxychloroquine are particularly anticipated because of the work of Professor Didier Raoult, Director of IHU Méditerranée Infection in Marseille. In an article published 17 March in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents and widely publicized by U.S. President Donald Trump, the French professor says that, in combination with an antibiotic (azithromycin), the molecule represents a promising response to COVID-19. However, Professor Raoult’s work has been met with reservations by many other experts, including the view that his trials, which included 24 patients, do not meet all the necessary criteria.
When presenting this European clinical trial to the press, French authorities insisted on the Discovery’s ‘adaptive’ nature. “This means that, very quickly, ineffective experimental treatments can be abandoned and replaced by other molecules that emerge from research. We will therefore be able to react in real time, in line with the most recent scientific data, in order to highlight the best treatment for our patients”, explained Florence Ader, an infectious disease specialist at the Croix-Rousse hospital of the Lyon University Hospital Centre, which will be piloting the Discovery project for the French part of the project.
At the international level, the WHO-led Solidarity trial is expected to begin soon. It will bring together Argentina, Bahrain, Canada, France, Iran, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Thailand and Switzerland (see EUROPE 12450/1). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)