Kiwi scientists are optimistic new drug trials taking place here could play an important role in the fight against COVID-19.
A number of clinical trials have been launched in the country exploring various possible treatments to the virus.
In one of the trials, researchers in New Zealand and Australia are looking at how effective HIV and malaria drugs are for patients who have been admitted to hospital. It is hoped the drugs could mean patients do not need to be placed on a ventilator.
Dr Susan Morpeth, an infectious diseases physician who is leading the trial in New Zealand, says scientists around the world have been scrambling to catch up to COVID-19, which has killed more than 175,000 people globally.
"When it became clear that we were going to be involved in this pandemic we started to prepare to be able to run a trial," Dr Morpeth told The AM Show on Wednesday.
"Because when you have a new disease like this where there's no known effective treatment the best way to get treatment is have a randomised clinical trial, to test whether treatments are safe and effective - so we immediately started setting up for that."
The trial has just received funding from the Health Research Council and still in the early stages.
Dr Morpeth says researchers are focusing on HIV and malaria drugs because they have already proven to have an effect on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness COVID-19, in the laboratory.
"Scientists around the world have been really scrambling, looking for potential treatments for coronavirus since it was first announced as a new virus and so these particular agents have been ones that have been identified as ones which are worth testing, because in a lab - in a petri dish or in a test tube - they kill coronavirus," Dr Morpeth said.
"And the reason that we're starting with these two is that they're drugs that are already known to be safe for humans to take, people have been taking them for a long time."
Although they show promise, there remains much work to be done before they could be ready to be used in hospitals.
"We need to test them to see whether they are safe and effective against coronavirus in people. People are not a test tube or a petri dish, so we need to know. It's not safe just to go and start taking these medications without knowing if they actually work, whether there's a benefit."
Another clinical study being done in New Zealand is testing the effectiveness of immune modulation treatments and antiviral drugs on COVID-19 patients in a critical condition, while a third one will look at the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine.
