The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday 25 May that as a precautionary measure, it had “temporarily” suspended the clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine carried out under the Solidarity programme.
This decision follows the publication of a study a few days earlier in the medical journal The Lancet. After analysing data from approximately 96,000 patients infected with Sars Cov-2, the Commission found the use of chloroquine or its derivatives, such as hydroxychloroquine, to be ineffective or even harmful.
In this context, the WHO and its partners have decided to temporarily suspend trials based on this malaria treatment while the data already collected are analysed. Discovery trials are also expected to be halted following negative opinions issued on 26 May by the French High Council for Public Health (HCSP) and the French Medicines Agency (ANSM).
As for the EU, the European Medicines Agency had already warned on 23 April about the risk of serious side effects and is currently preparing a new communication regarding this treatment. According to the information provided by the European Commission, this new turnaround should not affect the future joint procurement of innovative treatments, since this is still under discussion.
At this stage, four joint procurement procedures for medical countermeasures have been launched under the Government Procurement Agreement. In particular, they enabled Luxembourg to place orders for gloves as well as Estonia, Belgium and Latvia to place orders for masks and goggles. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)