It is ten months since the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, and we do not yet have any drugs proven to prevent it.

Scientists have evaluated many existing drugs in the laboratory to assess their potential against COVID-19, and several candidates are now being evaluated in clinical trials for their effectiveness to prevent the disease.

Drugs being studied include hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which have a long history for the prevention and treatment of malaria and are also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. If proven effective to prevent COVID-19, these drugs could provide an affordable prevention method with ready potential for global distribution.

However, media headlines, high-profile studies based on poor-quality or potentially fraudulent data and later retracted, and the politicisation and misrepresentation of research findings and safety concerns have led to widely varying regulatory responses and guidance, as well as public confusion.

Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have been discredited in many countries struggling to contain COVID-19, though we still lack adequate data definitively disproving their effectiveness to prevent COVID-19.

What are the facts?

In this webinar, scientists from Brazil, India, Thailand, and the US discuss the ethics, safety, and justification for evaluating hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to prevent COVID-19, in a context of guidance having been recently issued by the World Health Organization to halt the use of these drugs to treat the disease.

Moderator: Dr Phaik Yeong Cheah, University of Oxford (Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit), Thailand & Chair of the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition’s Data Sharing Working Group

Watch the recording

Agenda

Introduction & background – Dr Phaik Yeong Cheah, University of Oxford (Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit), Thailand

Equipoise in clinical trials during public health emergencies – is there a difference? – Dr Beatriz Thome, Federal University of São Paolo, Brazil

Hydroxychloroquine for the prevention of COVID: the Indian context – Dr Anant Bhan, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal / Yenepoya University, India & Member of the coalition’s Ethics Working Group

Evaluating hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine vs placebo for prevention of COVID-19 in healthcare workers: the COPCOV study – Prof. Sir Nicholas White, University of Oxford (Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit), Thailand & Chair of the coalition’s Steering Committee

The Healthcare Worker Exposure Response and Outcomes (HERO)-HCQ clinical trial – Dr Susanna Naggie, Duke Clinical Research Institute, USA

Q&A