(CNN) — As researchers continue seeking treatment options for Covid-19, the World Health Organization on Monday warned against using “untested drugs” to treat patients and running drug trials inappropriately.
“Small, observational and non-randomized studies will not give us the answers we need. Using untested drugs without the right evidence could raise false hope and even do more harm than good and cause a shortage of essential drugs that are needed to treat other diseases,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing on Monday.
“That’s why WHO has launched the SOLIDARITY trial, to generate robust, high-quality evidence as fast as possible,” Tedros said. “The more countries sign up to the trial and other large studies, the faster we will get results on which drugs work and the more lives we will be able to save.”
Last week, WHO and its partners launched an international clinical trial aimed at gathering and generating data on effective treatment options for Covid-19.
Currently, there is no known treatment for the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
