A malaria drug that has been tested as a treatment for coronavirus does not save lives, one of the world's largest trials shows.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

Hydroxychloroquine received global attention after being promoted by Donald Trump, and then controversy after studies on it were retracted.

The drug has now been pulled from the UK's Recovery trial, which is run by the University of Oxford.

The findings have been passed on to the World Health Organization.

Back at the start of the pandemic, laboratory studies had suggested the malaria drug could affect the virus. Small-scale studies in China and France then hinted it might help patients.

There was a huge amount of hope, as the medicine is cheap and has been safely used to treat malaria and conditions such as lupus and arthritis.

However, the evidence supporting its use for coronavirus has been weak.