Egypt carries out highest number of COVID-19 clinical trials in ME to find cure for coronavirus

CAIRO - 5 May 2020: Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar referred to the efforts of Egyptian universities and research centers in carrying out most of the clinical trials in Africa, with 22 clinical trials out of 30 experiments conducted by African countries.

According to the clinical trials website, the minister announced that Egypt ranks first among Middle Eastern and African countries carrying out experiments to find a cure for the emerging coronavirus "Covid-19".

Abdel Ghaffar stressed that Egypt has conducted half of the experiments carried out by countries in the Middle East to find a medicine that resists the emerging coronavirus; the Middle Eastern countries have carried out 44 experiments since the outbreak of the virus in China.

He pointed out that Egypt comes at the forefront, followed by Iran, Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

The minister saidin a statement issued by the Ministry of Higher Education on Tuesday that among the Egyptian universities that participated in these experiments are Ain Shams University, Cairo University, Assiut University, Tanta University, Kafr El-Sheikh University, Zagazig University, Al-Azhar University, in addition to the National Research Center.

Abdel-Ghaffar pointed out that although some countries conducted up to1,161 clinical studies, Egypt came in the top ten countries in the world in terms of conducting clinical trials to combat the emerging coronavirus.

He Confirmed that this comes in light of the political leadership's keenness to support the role of science and Egyptian scientists in finding solutions to control the spread of the coronavirus.

It is worth noting that these researches include a retrospective study of respiratory patients from November 2019 to February 2020, a study of the genetic sequence of the coronavirus for Egyptian patients, the use of plasma treatment of recovering patients, and a comparative study of some drugs used globally and other laboratory and clinical research.

The clinical trials website is affiliated with the National Institute of Health in the United States of America. It is also a database for the registration and results of clinical studies supported by the public and private sectors conducted around the world.

Egypt registered on May 4, 348 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and 7 deaths over the last 24 hours, raising the total infected patients to 6,813 and the mortality to 436 deaths, according to the Health Minister’s daily briefing.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic last December, the contagious disease has infected more than 3.6 million people globally and killed more than 252,000 people.