Race to find COVID-19 treatments accelerates

As the race to find treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) accelerates, the World Health Organization (WHO) last week announced a major study to compare treatment strategies in a streamlined clinical trial design that doctors around the world can join. SOLIDARITY—an unprecedented, coordinated push to collect robust scientific data rapidly during a pandemic—could include many thousands of patients in dozens of countries and has emphasized simplicity so that even hospitals overwhelmed by an onslaught of COVID-19 patients can participate. The study will examine an experimental antiviral compound called remdesivir; the malaria medication chloroquine (or its chemical cousin hydroxychloroquine); a combination of the HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir; and that combination plus interferon-beta, an immune system messenger that can help cripple viruses. WHO hopes to start to enroll patients as early as this week.