Effective In Reducing The Potential For Death Of COVID-19 Patients, WHO Will Test Three New Drugs

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it will test three new drugs for COVID-19, which will involve thousands of researchers in more than 600 hospitals in 52 countries.

The three new drugs are artesunate to treat severe malaria, imatinib to treat certain cancers and infliximab to treat immune system disorders such as Crohn's disease (inflammatory bowel disease).

These drugs were selected by an independent panel of experts for their potential to reduce the risk of death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and were donated to trials by their developers.

"Finding more effective and affordable therapies for COVID-19 patients remains a critical need and WHO is proud to lead this global effort," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In previous efforts, the WHO has tested four drugs: remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon.

Preliminary results suggest that all four drugs have little or no effect on hospital COVID-19 patients.