COVID-19: WHO approves 3 drugs for treatment of patients

Admin l Thursday, August 12, 2021

 

GENEVA, Switzerland – The World Health Organisation, WHO has approved three drugs to be used as clinical trial for the treatment of  patients with Coronavirus pandemic, which has killed over 4 million people worldwide.

The drugs are  artesunate, imatinib and infliximab. According to WHO, the drugs will be tested on hospitalized COVID-19 patients in 52 countries under the Solidarity PLUS programme.

There  are now more than 203 million cases of the disease recorded globally as of Wednesday, according to WHO data.  Speaking during a press conference in Geneva, agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus underscored the critical need to find more effective and accessible COVID-19 therapeutics.

“We already have many tools to prevent, test for and treat COVID-19, including oxygen, dexamethasone and IL-6 blockers. But we need more, for patients at all ends of the clinical spectrum, from mild to severe disease. And we need health workers that are trained to use them in a safe environment,” he said.

The three drugs, according to WHO were selected by an independent panel for their potential in reducing the risk of death in people hospitalized for COVID-19. They drugs are already being used to treat other conditions.

Artesunate is a medicine for severe malaria, imatinib is used for certain cancers, including leukemia, while infliximab is used to treat Crohn’s Disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases of the immune system.  Manufacturers Ipca, Novartis and Johnson & Johnson, donated the drugs for the trial.