 Novartis said it will proceed with a Phase III clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 disease. The trial will be of approximately 440 patients at more than a dozen sites in the United States, and Novartis said it will make its hydroxychloroquine intellectual property available to support broad access if medicine is approved for COVID-19. Novartis said it plans to begin enrollment for this study within the next few weeks and is committed to reporting results as soon as possible. Novartis said it will donate up to 130 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine to supply global clinical research efforts in the event the medicine is proven beneficial for treatment of COVID-19, and said its generics arm Sandoz has already donated 30 million tablets to the US Department of Health and Human Services. 