GENEVA (Reuters) – Chinese scientists are testing two antivirals against the new coronavirus and preliminary results from clinical trials are just weeks away, said co-chair of a meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday.
World Health Organization co-chair of the global research and innovation forum to mobilize international action in response to the new coronavirus, Marie-Paule Kieny, attends a press conference on the novel coronavirus (2019 -nCoV) in Geneva, Switzerland February 11, 2020 REUTERS / Denis Balibouse
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Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, a former WHO virologist, co-chaired the two-day closed-door research forum in Geneva bringing together more than 300 scientists and researchers, some of whom have participated virtually from China and Taiwan.
“Chinese colleagues are very keen to participate in protocols that are being defined so that all clinical trials are carried out according to the same standards and aim for the same result,” she said at a press conference. . “They were very interested in working on such a master protocol.”
The coronavirus, now nicknamed COVID-19, which emerged in central China in December infected more than 44,000 people and killed more than 1,100 people in China and has spread to at least 24 other countries.
Kieny said that a number of patients had previously received a dose of the antivirals ritonavir and lopinavir, but did not have an exact figure.
It would be “great if it worked because this drug is available especially as a generic formulation for HIV treatment, so it would clearly be a drug that would be available,” said Kieny.
Combination therapy for HIV is sold under the brand name Kaletra by AbbVie Inc (ABBV.N).
It remains to be seen whether the treatment will prove effective against the new virus, she said. “We don’t know the result, and we have to wait a few days or weeks for a result.”
A state-run Chinese research institute filed a patent last week for the use of remdesivir, an experimental antiviral from the American company Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O), which scientists hope will be effective against the coronavirus.
“They will soon start dosing patients on remdesivir … which had been tested without much success with Ebola, but the Ebola virus and the coronavirus are different and it could be more successful with the crown,” said Kieny.
“But we will have to wait a few weeks if that gives a positive signal.”
Report by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Bill Berkrot
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