Novartis Ends COVID-19 Hydroxychloroquine Trial

Novartis says it has discontinued its phase 3 clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment in the U.S. because it failed to recruit enough patients.  

The Swiss drugmaker said the recruitment challenge made it unlikely that it could collect meaningful data to determine the drug’s effectiveness.

The company said that there were no conclusions on efficacy from the discontinued study and that it would still supply hydroxychloroquine for clinical trials and in response to government requests for the drug.