Novartis said it plans to conduct a 440-person clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19.
The trial will be a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study where patients will be assigned one of three options: hydroxychloroquine, a combination of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin or a placebo.
The trial will be conducted at more than a dozen sites in the U.S. and begin in the next few weeks, the drugmaker said.
Hydroxychloroquine is the decades-old malaria drug that the president has urged COVID-19 patients to try. It has been regularly given to COVID-19 patients, though it hasn't been proven to be effective in treating the disease.
Read the full news release here.