WHO expects hydroxychloroquine safety findings by mid-June

Those already in a 17-country study, called Solidarity, of thousands of patients who have started hydroxychloroquine can finish their treatment, the WHO said.

Newly enrolled patients will get other treatments being evaluated, including Gilead Science’s remdesivir and AbbVie’s Kaletra/Aluvia.

Separate hydroxychloroquine trials, including a 440-patient U.S. study by Swiss drugmaker Novartis, are continuing enrollment.

Novartis and rival Sanofi have pledged donations of tens of millions of doses of the drug, also used in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, for COVID-19.

Novartis said The Lancet study, while covering 100,000 people, was “observational” and could not demonstrate a causal link between hydroxychloroquine and side effects.

“We need randomised, controlled clinical trials to clearly understand efficacy and safety,” a Novartis spokesman said.

The WHO said its safety-board review would examine not just Solidarity patients, but other hydroxychloroquine studies too, to determine if a pattern emerges similar to problems described in The Lancet.