WHO has a public consultation on the following document for the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization (ECBS) is now open.
WHO assessment and accelerated national registration of WHO-prequalified In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs)
The 1st draft of the Collaborative procedure between the World Health Organization (WHO) and National Regulatory Authorities in the assessment and accelerated national registration of WHO-prequalified In Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs) has been prepared to enhance timely access to WHO-prequalified products in countries, to ensure that the product in countries is the same as the one which is WHO-prequalified and to provide a model for regulatory information exchange between countries. The draft document has been updated based on the informal consultation with experts from the National Regulatory Authorities which was conducted in November 2019 during the WHO Workshop on Collaborative Registration Procedure for Diagnostics.
WHO are now publishing this draft to get the feedback from a broad audience of relevant government authorities, manufacturers, and other experts. DEADLINE for submission of comment: 15 July 2020. Please send comments to: gunlud@who.int.
TOPIC: Chloroquine Phosphate Intended for Fish: FDA Letter to Stakeholders – Do Not Use as Treatment for COVID-19 in Humans
AUDIENCE: Consumer, Health Professional
ISSUE: The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine has recently become aware that some consumers may mistake chloroquine phosphate used to treat disease in aquarium fish for FDA-approved drugs (used to treat malaria and certain other conditions in humans) that are being studied as a COVID-19 treatment for humans. Unfortunately, we have learned that one person in the United States has died after he and his wife reportedly took chloroquine used to treat their fish in an attempt to prevent COVID-19; his wife also became very ill.
Our primary concern during the COVID-19 pandemic is the imminent threat to the health of consumers who may take animal drugs thinking they are interchangeable with approved human drugs.
This document provides interim guidance on the management of the blood supply in response to the pandemic outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It is intended for blood services, national health authorities, and others responsible for the provision of blood and blood components and integration of the blood system within the public health system. WHO will continue to update this guidance as new information becomes available.
The World Health Organization (WHO) was informed in December 2019 about a coronavirus pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province (China). Subsequently, on March 12, 2020, 125,048 cases and 4,614 deaths were reported. Coronavirus is an enveloped RNA virus, from the genus Betacoronavirus, that is distributed in birds, humans, and other mammals. WHO has named the novel coronavirus disease as COVID-19. More than 80 clinical trials have been launched to test coronavirus treatment, including some drug repurposing or repositioning for COVID-19. Hence, we performed a search in March 2020 of the clinicaltrials.gov database. The eligibility criteria for the retrieved studies were: contain a clinicaltrials.gov base identifier number; describe the number of participants and the period for the study; describe the participants’ clinical conditions; and utilize interventions with medicines already studied or approved for any other disease in patients infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV). It is essential to emphasize that this article only captured trials listed in the clinicaltrials.gov database. We identified 24 clinical trials, involving more than 20 medicines, such as human immunoglobulin, interferons, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, arbidol, remdesivir, favipiravir, lopinavir, ritonavir, oseltamivir, methylprednisolone, bevacizumab, and traditional Chinese medicines (TCM). Although drug repurposing has some limitations, repositioning clinical trials may represent an attractive strategy because they facilitate the discovery of new classes of medicines; they have lower costs and take less time to reach the market; and there are existing pharmaceutical supply chains for formulation and distribution.
Commissioner of Food and Drugs – Food and Drug Administration
Stephen M. Hahn M.D.
Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs – Office of Regulatory Affairs
Judith A. McMeekin Pharm.D.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is actively and aggressively monitoring the market for any firms marketing products with fraudulent coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnostic, prevention and treatment claims as part of our ongoing efforts to protect public health during this pandemic. As a result of these activities, the agency is beginning to see unauthorized fraudulent test kits that are being marketed to test for COVID-19 in the home.
