COVID-19: Natco Pharma donates chloroquine tablets for global trials

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) Drug firm Natco Pharma on Tuesday said it has donated chloroquine phosphate tablets through its marketing partner in the US to support a global clinical trial conducted by CROWN Collaborative in the wake of coronavirus pandemic. The trial will examine whether the anti-malarial drug can protect essential healthcare workers from COVID-19 virus.

The company has donated the tablets through Rising Pharmaceuticals.  Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis is the clinical coordinating center for this trial, Natco Pharma said in a BSE filing. COVID-19 Research Outcomes Worldwide Network (CROWN) Collaborative, is testing whether the anti-malaria drug chloroquine can prevent COVID-19 infection or decrease its severity in frontline healthcare workers, it added.

For the study, chloroquine will be donated to the US arm of the chloroquine repurposing to health-workers for novel coronavirus mitigation clinical trials, Natco Pharma said. The collaborative and the trial are funded by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, an initiative with contributions from an array of public and philanthropic donors, including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Natco Pharma said.

The trial aims to include at least 30,000 subjects across the frontline healthcare workers, it added. Natco has been supplying anti-malarial chloroquine phosphate tablets, a United States Food and  Drug Administrtion (USFDA) approved drug, through its marketing partner to the US since 2011, the filing said.

Shares of Natco Pharma were trading at Rs 602.80 per scrip on the BSE, up 2.91 per cent from its previous close..

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)