The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) today said that it will stop administering hydroxychloroquine in its clinical trials on COVID-19 patients, in accordance with the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire made the announcement a day after the WHO said that it is suspending the use of the anti-malaria drug due to safety reasons. Hydroxychloroquine is one of four drugs being administered in the WHO’s experimental treatments in multiple countries, called a solidarity trial, in hopes of finding a cure for COVID-19. The Philippines joined the trial a month ago.
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“Of course, we follow WHO guidelines on this because this is a part of the WHO solidarity trial,” Vergeire said in a DOH forum with reporters, adding that a letter has been sent from her office which stated that the Philippines is exiting the trial.
While Vergeire said that “[w]e are stopping from giving this to our COVID-19 patients because of the WHO’s advice,” the health official did not say what effects the recalled drug had on coronavirus patients.
The drug has seen its share of controversy after being touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a game-changing cure against the virus, one that could potentially end the outbreak. Trump even said that he himself was taking the drug to combat the coronavirus, despite its effectivity for curing COVID-19 being unproven.
The WHO yesterday said that it will first conduct a safety review on the drug.
“The review will consider data collected so far in the Solidarity Trial and in particular robust, randomized available data to adequately evaluate the potential benefits and harms from this drug [hydroxycholoroquine],” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press briefing.
Vergeire, meanwhile, said that it is still too early to reveal hydroxychloroquine’s effects in the clinical trials.
“With regard to the results [of administering it] on our patients, we are not allowed to reveal that yet as we are still on the clinical trial phase,” she said.
“But rest assured, we will first stop giving out the medicine because the WHO has recommended against it,” Vergeire added.
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