France, Italy and Belgium acted to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients suffering from COVID-19 amid questions about the safety of the generic anti-malaria drug.

A French consortium is stepping up previously announced plans for a saliva-based screening test to detect COVID-19, by joining up with medical laboratory and diagnostics group INOVIE.

Global coronavirus cases surpassed 5 million, with Latin America overtaking the United States and Europe in the past week to report the largest portion of new daily cases globally.

France said the world’s nations would have equal access to any coronavirus vaccine developed by pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi, a day after the CEO suggested that Americans would likely be the first in line.

Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson said it was vital that any coronavirus vaccine reach all regions, hours after the pharmaceutical giant was admonished by the French government for suggesting some countries would get priority access.

The World Health Organization said a report that COVID-19 had emerged in December in France, sooner than previously thought, was “not surprising” and urged countries to investigate any other early suspicious cases.

At least 10 different drug compounds ranging from cancer therapies to antipsychotics and antihistamines may be effective at preventing the new coronavirus from multiplying in the body, according to a multidisciplinary study conducted by a team of scientists in the United States and France.

The global scramble to secure face masks to shield frontline workers from the coronavirus has turned the marketplace into the “Wild West”, with the United States often ready to outbid buyers who have already signed deals, European officials say.

Regeneron and Sanofi dosed the first patient outside of the United States with the rheumatoid arthritis drug Kevzara as part of a second global clinical trial assessing the medication as a treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

A Paris-based prosecutor initiated an investigation into Sanofi over the company’s drug Depakine, which is on the market for epilepsy and bipolar disorder.