Covid-19: the Institut Pasteur de Lille launches the clinical trial of a possible treatment, clofoctol – franceinfo

The Institut Pasteur de Lille announced Monday, September 6 that it had recruited its first patient for the second phase of the clinical trial of a possible treatment against Covid-19, clofoctol. And said to research “between 350 and 700 patients” to assess the effectiveness of this drug in the early management of Covid-19 patients and the prevention of hospitalizations.

The Institut Pasteur de Lille (which has no link with the one based in Paris) announced the launch of this trial in mid-June, when it had been authorized by the National Medicines Safety Agency.

Corn “it only starts now”, explained to AFP Professor Xavier Nassif, Director General of the Institute. The recruitment of volunteers has indeed been complicated by the summer holidays, by the progress of vaccination and the very precise profile sought: patients over 50 years old, unvaccinated, and presenting at least one symptom.

For the time being, recruitments only concern Hauts-de-France, but “we are trying to extend them to other regions, especially the Antilles”, explains Xavier Nassif. He believes that this trial remains useful despite the boom in vaccination, “because we do not know how this epidemic will end”, and “not all countries have the same access to vaccination”.

Clofoctol should be given to patients as a suppository, twice a day for five days. “Particularly effective in inhibiting virus replication” according to the Institute, the molecule is already marketed in France and other European countries, in an indication other than that of Covid-19.