Cambridge study to trial widely used drug to protect healthcare staff from COVID-19

Until a safe and effective vaccine is available to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and the development of COVID-19 symptoms, NHS and other frontline healthcare staff, including paramedics, will continue to remain vulnerable even with the best personal protective equipment (PPE) available. Chemoprophylaxis (drugs taken to prevent infection) may be an effective strategy for reducing infection in NHS staff until a successful vaccine can be produced.

Although HCQ and the related drug, chloroquine, have been suggested as potentially effective treatments for COVID-19 from early on in the pandemic, there have not yet been any well-designed, sufficiently large studies that can provide the evidence required for their use as preventative therapies. PROLIFIC is a randomised, double-blinded and placebo-controlled study that will determine whether daily or weekly doses of HCQ are effective at reducing COVID-19 infection among front-line health care workers.

HCQ, a medication already widely and safely used to prevent malaria in high risk countries has shown promise at preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro (in cells grown in a lab). Compared with chloroquine, HCQ causes fewer side effects, and has shown greater potential at preventing coronavirus infection in early studies, even when used at lower concentrations. How HCQ works to prevent infection is not fully understood, but researchers believe that it may block the virus from entering cells by influencing the pH in the part of the cell that would normally fuse with the virus to allow it to get inside the cell and replicate.

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Published May 22, 2020