University to conduct trials on traditional COVID medicine

News24 26 March 2022

South Africa’s University of the Free State (UFS) will start clinical trials to test the use of traditional medicine in patients with mild and moderate COVID-19, writes Tebogo Monama for News24.

The university will enrol 250 people in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and the Northern Cape. The subject of the trial, Phela, is a traditional medicine developed through the UFS and the Department of Science and Innovation. Historically, this mixture has been used for HIV and has been repurposed for COVID-19.

The University of Free State will be the first local institution to conduct clinical trials to test traditional medicine to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 patients. Its department of pharmacology and FARMOVS, a clinical research company based at the university’s Bloemfontein campus, have teamed up to conduct the first South African Health Products Regulatory Authority approved multi-centre controlled clinical trial of a plant-based product.
Full report on the News24 site

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