First Step in Clinical Research for COVID-19 Treatment

Employees are packaging the malaria drug chloroquine phosphate as a pharmaceutical company in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, China, resumes production of the drug after 15 years.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's National Institute of Health announced on the 2nd that it will spend a total of 3.7 billion KRW this year on 10 projects for the development of treatments for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). The projects include drug repurposing clinical trials to evaluate whether existing or developing drugs are suitable for COVID-19, development of antibody diagnostic kits, epidemiological studies on transmission characteristics, and establishing basic operational plans for the National Virus Research Institute. Hydroxychloroquine, used for malaria treatment, will be tested to confirm its preventive effect on close contacts of existing COVID-19 patients, and the antiviral effect of combining the HIV treatment drug Kaletra in mild patients will also be analyzed.