Live Reporting
Edited by Lauren Turner

6:57
Brazilian study finds hydroxychloroquine ineffective

A drug that Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro pushed heavily saying it could treat coronavirus has been found to be ineffective in a large study in Brazil.

Hydroxychloroquine made headlines earlier this year when it was hoped the malaria drug could also help people sick with Covid-19.

-snip-

Now a clinical study of patients with mild to moderate symptoms in 55 hospitals in Brazil has found the drug does not effectively treat Covid-19 and could have damaging side effects.

The study, conducted on 667 patients, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The trial had its limitations, the paper's authors cautioned, explaining, "the trial cannot definitively rule out either a substantial benefit of the trial drugs or a substantial harm".