London health workers who contract coronavirus are to be offered antiviral drugs used to treat HIV and flu to try to slow its progress.
A total of £10 million in charity funding was announced today for a series of trials that will involve “repurposing” existing therapies in the battle against Covid-19.
Researchers at University College London will investigate whether favipiravir, which is used as a flu treatment in Japan, and lopinavir-ritonavir, which is used globally to treat HIV, can reduce or halt coronavirus in its early stages. Hundreds of healthcare workers with moderate and early symptoms will get the chance to receive the drugs separately or in combination.
The trial, at University College London Hospitals, the Royal Free London NHS trust and Great Ormond Street hospital, is expected to take three months.
Coronavirus is thought to replicate significantly in its early phases, and researchers want to see if intervening early can stop it progressing to its more dangerous stage.
Researchers at Chelsea and Westminster hospital will also trial favipiravir but in Covid-19 patients being treated in hospital because the disease has advanced.
Seven trials, funded by charity LifeArc, were announced today, with details to follow on eight more.
A team at King’s College London will investigate whether ruxolitinib, a drug normally used in bone marrow disorders and blood cancer, can help Covid patients to avoid having to be put on to a ventilator and reduce the death rate. Its trial begins next week.
Other grants will fund trials at Ashford and St Peters Hospital NHS Trust in Surrey, and researchers in Oxford and Edinburgh.
LifeArc chose projects involving drugs already used for other diseases or about to complete trials, so that trials could begin quickly. Creating new medicines or searching for a vaccine is much more expensive and may take longer.
