Italian regulators clear testing of potential coronavirus drugs
Published : 27 Mar 2020, 22:18
Italian regulators on Friday greenlighted pilot programs aimed at testing specific anti-malaria drugs and pharmaceutical mixtures used to treat AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) to determine whether they could be effective in fighting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
The country's National Health Service said in a statement that the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) had approved the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, traditionally used to fight malaria, and treatments based on anti-AIDS drugs lopinavir, ritonavir, darunavir and cobicistat for testing on a small group of COVID-19 patients.
The National Health Service also announced that AIFA had given its approval to a Japanese anti-flu drug called Avigan, known in Europe as Favipiravir.
Until Friday's approvals, tests on COVID-19 patients had been conducted using Remdesivir, an experimental anti-viral drug developed in the United States for patients of the Ebola virus, which shares some characteristics with COVID-19.
On Thursday, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases at Rome's Spallanzani Hospital announced the launch of a program aimed at cloning antibodies of patients recovering from COVID-19 as a way to boost the chances of those more seriously ill.
Meanwhile, health officials announced on Friday that 969 people had died in Italy over the previous 24 hours, more than on any other day since the outbreak began in February. All told, there are more than 66,000 active coronavirus cases in Italy.