The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) has begun a clinical study to test whether two available drugs in the market can treat Covid-19 patients with mild and moderate symptoms in Africa.
The trial, ANTICOV, being conducted in 19 sites in 13 African countries will begin testing, against a control arm, the HIV anti-retroviral combination lopinavir/ritonavir and the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which remains the standard of care for Covid-19 today in numerous African countries.
The trial, which is the largest in Africa, aims to respond to the urgent need to identify medication that can be used to treat mild and moderate cases of Covid-19 early and prevent spikes in hospitalisation that could overwhelm fragile and already overburdened health systems in Africa.
ANTICOV is an open-label, randomised, comparative, ‘adaptive platform trial’ that will test the safety and efficacy of treatments in 2,000 to 3,000 mild-to-moderate Covid-19 patients in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sudan, and Uganda.