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 The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) took
its decision on what is known as the COPCOV trial after
hydroxychloroquine was found in another British trial to have no
benefit as a treatment for patients already infected with COVID-19,
the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The COPCOV study was paused pending review after the treatment trial
results.
It is a randomised, placebo-controlled trial that is aiming to enrol
40,000 healthcare workers and other at-risk staff around the world,
and is being led by the Oxford University's Mahidol Oxford Tropical
Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
U.S. President Donald Trump said in March hydroxychloroquine could
be a game-changer and then said he was taking it himself, even after
the U.S. regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), advised
that its efficacy and safety were unproven.
The FDA later revoked emergency use authorisation for the drugs to
treat COVID-19, after trials showed they were of no benefit as
treatments.
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But White, who is co-leadng the COPCOV trial, said studies of the drugs as a
potential preventative medicine had not yet given a conclusive answer.
"Hydroxychloroquine could still prevent infections, and this needs to be
determined in a randomised controlled trial," he said in a statement. "The
question whether (it) can prevent COVID-19 or not remains as pertinent as ever."
White's team said recruitment of British health workers would resume this week,
and said plans were under way for new sites in Thailand and Southeast Asia,
Africa and South America. Results are expected by the end of this year.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Paul Sandle and Timothy Heritage)
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