Pharmaceuticals supplier Accord Healthcare is to donate 2 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to assist efforts in fighting Covid-19.

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Accord will donate the tablets, along with the same number of matched placebo, to the global COPCOV study. The study is assessing the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in the prevention of Covid-19 in healthcare settings. The study involves 40,000 frontline healthcare workers are currently caring for patients with Covid-19.

Hydroxychloroquine has been highlighted by the World Health Organisation as a targeted research priority for combatting Covid-19. However, despite the drug being a possible treatment against the virus, healthcare organisations have stressed that it should only be used in a clinical trial setting.

The COPCOV study is being led by UK scientists from the University of Oxford and funded by the Wellcome Trust. The study will pool the resources and expertise of international experts.

Dr William Schilling, co-lead investigator of the trial said: “We are in a race against time to find effective treatments and preventive measures as the Covid-19 pandemic grows. What we already know is that chloroquine has antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture, as it does for the related SARS-CoV.”

Professor Sir Nicholas White, Wellcome Trust principal fellow and consultant physician at the University of Oxford continues: “The hypothesis for this study is that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine might both slow viral replication in exposed subjects, attenuating or preventing the infection. There is extensive experience with these well-established drugs in the prevention and treatment of malaria and rheumatological conditions. We need to find out urgently in a large definitive study if they can prevent Covid. If they do prove effective, then they would be a readily deployable and affordable preventive measure for high risk individuals such as healthcare workers”.

Dr James Burt, Accord Healthcare executive vice president, Europe and MENA said: “I am extremely proud that Accord is leading the way and playing an important part in the current Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to providing scientific advice, our teams are working around the clock, in challenging times, to manufacture the required hydroxychloroquine and matching-placebo for this vital study. This is a great demonstration of Accord’s mission to provide essential medicines to people in need, helping to make things better for healthcare professionals on the frontline, patients and society in general.”