Chennai: A senior official of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the agency is optimistic and hopeful that the Covid-19 vaccines could be available before the end of this year.
Speaking to the media from Geneva, WHO chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, who hails from Tamilnadu, said that clinical trials have now definitively shown that anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine does not have an impact on preventing deaths from Covid-19.
Talking about the latest coronavirus drug trial findings, the top WHO scientist, in reference to a future vaccine against the deadly virus, she said there are about 10 candidates which are in human testing phase and at least three of them are entering the new promising phase-three stage which proves a vaccine’s efficacy.
“I am hopeful, I’m optimistic, but vaccine development is a complex undertaking and comes with a lot of uncertainty. The good thing is we have many different vaccine candidates and platform,” she said and added that WHO’s focus is also on accelerating and scaling up a potential vaccine.
She stated, “If we are lucky, there will be one or two successful candidates before the end of this year.”
Clearing the air on WHO’s position on hydroxychloroquine, famously called ‘game-changer’ by US President Donald Trump in the fight against coronavirus, she said that separate clinical trials had shown the futility of carrying on testing the drug as a means to cut mortality rates from the deadly virus.
Soumya said that further large trials are ongoing to establish the “last word” on whether hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) may have a role to play in prevention, either before or after exposure to coronavirus.
Replying to a question about the anti-malarial drug, she said, “What is clear now is hydroxychloroquine does not have an impact on the disease course on mortality in hospitalised Covid-19 patients.”
She added: “Where there is still a gap is: does it have any role at all in prevention or minimising the severity of the illness in early infection. We need to complete those large trials to have a definitive answer on that.”
She said that the WHO-led Solidarity clinical trial data safety monitoring committee looked at the interim data and found there was no mortality benefit in the patients receiving hydroxychloroquine.
“The UK’s RECOVERY trial and our Solidarity trial put together a large number of patients where there was no benefit. So, it was decided that there was no point in continuing, what we call ‘futility’, when we are convinced there is no benefit is one of the principles of clinical trial,” she said.
According to Soumya, “As a global community, we want clear answers. We want to conclude whether a drug reduces mortality or not, and if it doesn’t, does it have any other beneficial effects such as reducing need for hospitalisation or the need for ventilation. As far as the use of hydroxychloroquine for prevention of COVID-19, either before or after exposure, the last word is not yet out. There are some big trials going on.”
