In a move to accelerate clinical research to find a better treatment for COVID19, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an unparalleled global study, ‘SOLIDARITY trials’.

India will be part of this global effort to simultaneously test four potential therapies by comparing the efficacy of each of them.

Lauding it as an “unprecedented opportunity to come together as one against a common enemy”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, said, “This large, international study is designed to generate the robust data we need to show which treatments are the most effective.”

The guidelines issued by the Indian health ministry candidly admits that “no specific antivirals have been proven to be effective as per currently available data”. In the absence of reliable medication, supportive care remains the only treatment provided to very ill COVID 19 patients.