| dc.description.abstract | Currently, there are no therapeutic agents licensed and available for the treatment of COVID 19. On the 27th of January, WHO convened a meeting of experts to examine the available evidence and prioritize promising therapeutic agents for further evaluation in the ongoing outbreak. The expert panel recommended the direct-acting antiviral agent, Remdesivir, and the protease inhibitor, Lopinavir/ritonavir for evaluation in randomized clinical trials. At the time, there was insufficient evidence to support chloroquine’s further investigation. However, chloroquine has received significant attention in countries as a potentially useful prophylactic and curative agent, prompting the need to examine emerging evidence to inform a decision on its potential role. At the time of convening this meeting, about 500 clinical trials were ongoing in China, with at least 13 evaluating chloroquine’s efficacy. This expert consultation convened clinical care partners and experts in the field of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), preclinical studies, and chloroquine pharmacology for evaluating newly available evidence. | en_US |
