[Update: Following guidance from the World Health Organization, the trial mentioned in this report has been suspended.]

Demand for hydroxychloroquine surged in April after U.S. president Donald Trump touted it as a possible cure, despite health officials warning it may be unsafe. Now the president has taken it one step further by declaring he has been taking the controversial anti-malarial drug.

The president's revelation came despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning against the use of hydroxychloroquine outside of the hospital or clinical trials due to the risk of serious heart rhythm problems.

The UK has joined an international investigation into the use of two anti-malarial drugs – including hydroxychloroquine – as treatments for COVID-19. As part of the research, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine or a placebo will be given to more than 40,000 healthcare workers from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

The trial is funded by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, a new group set up soon after the new coronavirus was discovered. It includes the funding power of The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, MasterCard and Wellcome Trust – the second-largest global health foundation in the world. 

Nick Cammack is the lead for Therapeutics Accelerator at Wellcome Trust. He says the group is focusing on exploring the possibilities of using existing drugs to treat the virus. "Any medicine that will perhaps prevent somebody getting into hospital – or if they're in hospital, getting them out quickly – would have a huge benefit around the world.

"Hydroxychloroquine has been used very safely in malaria for many years," says Cammack. "But COVID-19 is a new disease. We always want to check, even long-established medicines, how they interact with the body under different disease conditions before we roll them out into the public domain.

"It is a drug that has potential to show some benefit in COVID-19 from the way it works. What we really need are large, definitive clinical studies that gives us the answer to whether it has some benefits or no benefits at all."

The trials will likely last a year, but the timing will depend on how many people will enroll to participate to the research. 

Check out The Pandemic Playbook, CGTN Europe's major investigation into the lessons learned from COVID-19

[This article was updated on 28/5/2020 to state that Mastercard were involved in the partnership.]