WHO resumes hydroxychloroquine trial, Indian ICMR vindicated in continuing use

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 4

The WHO late Wednesday night revoked the temporary pause it had ordered last week on the hydroxychloroquine arm of the ongoing Solidarity Trial and announced the trial to resume.

The decision followed the recommendations of Data Safety Board of the WHO that reviewed mortality trends and concluded that there was no cause to modify any arm of the Solidarity Trial protocol which is underway to test four drugs for efficacy against COVID 19.

Indian scientists stood vindicated after the WHO decision as the ICMR has decided to continue using HCQ for prevention of COVID in health workers and frontline staffers.

WHO said in a statement on Wednesday night, "The Executive Group received the recommendation of Data Safety Board and endorsed continuation of all arms of the Solidarity Trial, including hydroxychloroquine.

The Executive Group will communicate with the principal investigators in the trial about resuming the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial.”

The world body said Data Safety and Monitoring Committee will continue to closely monitor the safety of all therapeutics being tested in the Solidarity Trial.

So far, more than 3,500 patients have been recruited in 35 countries for the solidarity trial of which India is a part.

Last week WHO Executive Group of the Solidarity Trial had decided to implement a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm of the trial, because of concerns raised about the safety of the drug".

The decision, WHO said, was taken as a precaution while the safety data were reviewed.

The Data Safety and Monitoring Committee of the Solidarity Trial has been reviewing the data. On the basis of the available mortality data, the members of the committee recommended that there are no reasons to modify the trial protocol, WHO said on Wednesday night.