Led by the University of Oxford and Wellcome supported Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) in Bangkok, Thailand, the COPCOV study is a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial that will enrol 40,000+ frontline healthcare workers and staff from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America who have close contact with patients with COVID-19 to determine definitively if chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are effective in preventing COVID-19.
COVID-19 is a major risk for frontline healthcare workers around the world, said COPCOV Co-Principal Investigator Professor Sir Nicholas White, of the University of Oxford who is based at MORU.
We really do not know if chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine are beneficial or harmful against COVID-19. The best way to find out if they are effective in preventing COVID-19 is in a randomised clinical trial. Thats what COPCOV is and why were doing this study, said Prof White.
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Enrolment of the first UK participants in COPCOV is beginning today at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. The COPCOV UK sites are being managed by the Diabetes Trials Unit, University of Oxford,
https://copcov.org. An additional four sites are expected to open by the end of May, towards a total of 25 COPCOV sites in the UK, by the end of June. Plans are well underway for new COPCOV study sites in Thailand and Southeast Asia, Italy, Portugal, Africa and South America. Results are expected by the end of this year (2020).
https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/news/copcov-begins-to-test-in-uk-if-chloroquine-and-hydroxychloroquine-prevent-covid-19