The VNA correspondent in France quoted the Ministry of Research on March 11 as saying that France will start a campaign of clinical trials of three COVID-19 drugs called Discovery by the end of this week or early next week.

A total of 800 French patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus will join the pilot program. They were divided into 4 groups.

In which group 1 did not use drugs. Group 2 used the drug remdesivir, developed by the Gilead Laboratory, to treat Ebola. Group 3 used a combination of 3 drugs lopinavir, ritonavir and kaletra developed by the AbbVie laboratory to treat HIV / AIDS. Group 4 tested a mixture of kaletra-interferon beta from Merck's laboratory.

Besides, France will also deploy 20 scientific research projects, including 7 projects related to basic research; 6 projects related to diagnosis, clinical and treatment; 3 projects related to epidemiology; The remaining four projects specialize in the humanities and social sciences such as spreading false rumors or the possibility of accepting measures that prohibit personal freedom during the epidemic season.

French health officials are also looking forward to the results of a serological testing project to complement the current way of testing with nasopharyngeal samples. Usually, the traditional way can only tell if the patient is carriers of the virus at the time of sampling.

However, serological testing will allow the individual to have an infection in the past. Combining serum test results with the database of the National Blood Bank, researchers will be able to grasp the true penetration of the virus into the human body and thereby determine the accuracy. than the death rate of the epidemic.