ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has recently joined the Solidarity Plus clinical trials led by World Health Organization (WHO). The trial would evaluate the three drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 infections.
The trial aimed to protect people from severe hospitalization and death because of COVID-19. The selected drugs, i.e. Artesunate, Imatinib and Infliximab, by the panel of experts have proven effectiveness in treating other life-threatening diseases. Artesunate is used for severe malaria, imatinib for specific cancers, and infliximab for immune system diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and Rheumatoid arthritis.
The other six countries in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region with Pakistan were also enrolled in this trial. Researchers and scientists from these countries, i.e., Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, are joining thousands of other researchers from 52 countries worldwide in this study. It has made Solidarity PLUS the largest global collaboration on COVID-19 research and development.
The collaboration of this sort allows the trial to assess multiple treatments simultaneously using a single protocol, recruiting thousands of patients to generate robust estimates on the effect a drug may have on mortality--even moderate effects.
The Solidarity PLUS trial also allows new treatments to be added and ineffective treatments to be dropped throughout its course. Previously, four drugs were evaluated by the trial. The results showed that remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon had little or no effect on hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
