Kenyan volunteers ready for drug trials amid shortage

Kenya has started slowly on the cut-throat race for a Covid-19 treatment, which by Wednesday had attracted 721 trials globally.

Most of the drug trials, 159, are in China, followed by the US with 137, France 67, Iran 65, and Spain 64.

Early starters in Africa include Egypt 16 trials, South Africa 5, Tunisia 2, and Nigeria and Ghana with one each. Kenya is expected to launch its trials later this month.

Kenya has registered for a World Health Organisation (WHO) coordinated study called ‘Solidarity’, which will test four types of drugs - remdesivir, chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir + ritonavir or + interferon-beta. 

The country will also be trying the Japanese drug, Avigan, but like other African countries, has difficulties getting Covid-19 related products due to high demand.

On Monday, Health Chief Administrative Secretary Rashid Aman said Kenya’s ambitions for mass testing are being slowed down by the lack of crucial reagents.

He said Kenya, like other African and non-manufacturing countries, has to queue up for its quota until when the products are available.

The country has just got an all-clear from India for the importation of hydroxychloroquine, which had to involve the intervention of Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo.

The other drug, remdesivir, manufactured by Gilead Biologicals of the US, is also in short supply even for qualifying Americans. On Tuesday, Gilead announced striking a deal with five generic drug makers to manufacture and distribute remdesivir to 127 countries, including Kenya.

The deal, which also allows for technology transfer to receiving countries, is only valid until the WHO announces Covid-19 is no longer a pandemic.

These events mean even if Kenya proves the test drugs effective it will still depend on the goodwill of manufacturing and patenting countries for allocations.

This is also likely to be the case with an effective vaccine, which by Monday the WHO had indicated 116 candidates were in various levels of its development.

Eight of these - the most advanced - are in human clinical trials, four developed by China, three by the US and one by the UK, but none is likely to be ready for use this year.

Significantly, none of the 116 vaccine candidates has been developed in Africa, again indicating possible access problems for the continent. A group of international scholars, including at the Kenyan Medical Research Institute, has complained this system is discriminatory and likely to hurt poor countries.

“The global allocation of testing and other resources currently mean that some are forced to wait, while those ahead in the global procurement line takes precedence,” they wrote last week in The Lancet.

In Kenya, Dr Omu Anzala, a virologist and immunologist, who is serving on the government task force on the Covid-19 pandemic, said they have got volunteers they need for trials, and all they are waiting for is approval from the Kenya Poison’s Board.

“Everything is ready. The clinical trials will start soon. We are working with people who have tested positive for the virus and are in isolation units. We already have their consent,” he said.