Alberta has temporarily suspended a province-wide trial investigating the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

A spokesperson with Alberta Health confirmed Tuesday that the “clinical trial has been temporarily suspended by the research team so they can review the literature and results from other studies, as is the case with some other clinical trials around HCQ.”

The temporary suspension comes as the World Health Organization announced Monday it was temporarily dropping hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments, saying that its experts need to review all available evidence to date.

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WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems, there would be “a temporary pause” on the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global clinical trial.

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug that’s normally used to treat malaria.

Alberta’s study, titled Alberta Hope COVID-19, was announced in mid-April and planned to recruit 1,600 Albertans to determine whether a prescribed five-day treatment of hydroxychloroquine can prevent hospitalization for those at highest risk of developing a severe illness.

The clinical trial is being led by University of Calgary and University of Alberta researchers, with support from the Alberta government and Alberta Health Services.

It’s not known how far Alberta’s study had progressed.

Global News is scheduled to speak with one of the U of C researchers behind the trial later Tuesday afternoon.

More to come…

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