Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), and Laxai Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. Hyderabad, have been given the regulatory approval by DCGI to undertake a two-arm phase-II clinical trial to assess the safety and efficacy of the drug Colchicine in improvement of clinical outcomes during the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The partner CSIR institutes in this important clinical trial are the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad and CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), Jammu.

Dr Ram Vishwakarma, advisor to DG-CSIR highlighted that colchicine in combination with standard of care will be an important therapeutic intervention for Covid-19 patients with cardiac co-morbidities and also for reducing proinflammatory cytokines, leading to faster recovery.

A number of global studies have confirmed now that cardiac complications during course of COVID-19 infections and post-covid syndrome are leading to loss of many lives, and it is essential to look for new or repurposed drugs.

Recent clinical studies have reported in leading medical journals about colchicine being associated with a significant reduction in the rates of recurrent pericarditis, post-pericardiotomy syndrome, and peri-procedural atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery and atrial fibrillation ablation.