The Institut Pasteur de Lille. – M.LIBERT / 20 MINUTES
- Last September, the Institut Pasteur de Lille announced that it had found an effective molecule to treat Covid-19.
- This is a drug already on the market used for another pathology.
- The Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) gave the green light on Thursday to launch clinical trials.
As of Monday, the Institut Pasteur de Lille will implement the protocol to perform clinical tests of a promising treatment against Covid-19. An authorization from the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) which nevertheless comes eight months after the announcement of the discovery of this molecule by the teams of researchers.
On September 29, the Institut Pasteur de Lille confirmed to 20 minutes have found an effective molecule against Covid-19. “It remains to conduct a clinical trial to definitively validate the antiviral activity of this molecule”, then underlined a member of the research team. This molecule had already received marketing authorization from the ANSM under the name Clofoctol for a pathology other than Covid-19. It was therefore a question of “repositioning” it as a Covid-19 treatment since “the in vitro tests have shown the effectiveness of this molecule in inhibiting the replication of the virus”, assures the Institute.
Five centers in four towns in Hauts-de-France
The file presented by Pasteur was validated by the Committee for the Protection of Persons (CPP) and, on Thursday, it also received the approval of the ANSM. “The clinical trial to test this experimental treatment in the early management of Covid patients, double-blind against placebo” will be able to start, “all the logistics are ready”, continues at Pasteur Lille.
This test will take place in Hauts-de-France, in five centers to begin with: Senlis, Maubeuge, Château-Thierry and Lille. Other centers will open subsequently, but the number and their location in the region have not yet been specified. To be able to be included in this clinical trial, it is necessary to have made “a recent positive test, to be more than 50 years old, to have at least one symptom and not to have been vaccinated”.
If the administration of the drug will be done in the different centers, the patients will not be hospitalized. The follow-up will be provided at home thanks to the collaboration of general practitioners. The Institut Pasteur de Lille is also launching a call to general practitioners in Hauts-de-France who would like to participate to send an email to [email protected].