Romania to take part in global WHO Covid-19 treatment trial

The World Health Organization (WHO) has included Romania in its Solidarity Trial, a global trial that looks at the safety and effectiveness of four different drugs or drug combinations against Covid-19, Miljana Grbic, the head of the WHO Office for Romania, and Alexandru Rafila, the country’s representative to the WHO, have told G4media.ro.

Romania applied to be included in the WHO project through the Matei Balș National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the country proposed the inclusion of nine infectious diseases centers (two in Bucharest and seven in the country) in the trial, Rafila told G4media.ro. Rafila is also head of the Laboratory of the Matei Balş Institute in Bucharest.

As part of the trial, the doctors will test four Covid-19 treatments in order to reach a solution that can be widely applied. The four treatments included in the trial are the antiviral drug Remdesivir; malaria medication Chloroquine and malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus treatment Hydroxychloroquine; Lopinavir-Ritonavir, which are used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS; and Lopinavir-Ritonavir and interferon-beta.

“This large international trial is designed to generate solid information needed to establish which treatment is more efficient. The Solidarity Trial project provides simplified procedures that will allow even the most over-crowded hospitals to take part in it. Romania will be part of the project, the Health Ministry and the national authorities will decide which hospitals will be included in the program,” Miljana Grbic told G4media.ro.

By taking part in the trial, Romania will have access to Remdesivir, a molecule that is in the clinical testing phase internationally, and which the country will also receive for testing, Rafila explained. “It is an advantage that Romania takes part in the clinical studies, there are not many countries enrolled in the project. If the trial will be rolled out rapidly, by this fall we can hope to have a treatment approved globally,” Rafila said.

In order for the trial to be implemented locally, the National Drug Agency (ANMDM) will have to approve it and the nine infectious diseases centers will have to meet several administrative demands, and they will be included as they manage to fulfill them.