KARACHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO) is supervising a research about fast-track development of Covid-19 treatment in Pakistan which would help ascertain the effectiveness of anti-Malaria drugs while treating the coronavirus patients, officials and industry sources said on Wednesday.

The development emerged after Getz Pharma — Pakistan’s only WHO-approved manufacturing facility — joined hands with the University of Health Sciences in Lahore to support research projects that could include clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug shown to be effective against the coronavirus, pushing the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency approval of the product.

“Under this initiative, we are supporting the University of Health Sciences, Lahore, for research that includes clinical trials of the drug,” Khalid Mahmood, Managing Director and CEO of Getz Pharma, told Dawn. “The virus is mutating as it moves from one population. There is a need to examine the coronavirus in Pakistan more. This initiative would help on all these lines and lead to better results and other initatives,” he said.

The pharmaceutical company, meanwhile, donated 15,000 testing kits as well as 1.9 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to the Sindh government. A statement issued by the company said that it had also donated 1,500 units of personal protective equipment (PPE) for doctors and healthcare workers, which had been dispatched to more than 50 hospitals, isolation wards, quarantine centers and clinics in Sindh, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah and Larkana.

Meanwhile, adviser to the Sindh chief minister Barrister Murtaza Wahab praised the pharmaceutical company for its supplies to the provincial government, which has showed its serious frustration for not being able to import testing kits as the federal government refused to allow cargo flights for this purpose.

“Getz Pharma has donated 15,000 rapid anti-body testing kits, about 1.9 million hydroxychloroquine tablets & 1,500 personal protective equipment to #SindhGovt. On behalf of the Govt & people of Sindh, my heartfelt appreciation & gratitude to the management of Getz Pharma. Thank you,” he tweeted.

Mr Mahmood of Getz Pharma also lauded the recent efforts of the scientists at the Dow University of Health Sciences for preparing an immunoglobulin that could effectively help treat the Covid-19 patients.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2020