Manacovid as an established effective COVID-19 treatment

The Democratic Republic of the Congo authorized and promoted Manacovid as an effective and safe COVID-19 treatment on the basis of preliminary clinical results presented as 100% recovery, before robust randomized evidence had established that therapeutic effect.

1 episode

Current understanding

Authorization and uncontrolled or insufficiently documented clinical results do not establish treatment efficacy. In 2022, a joint WHO, Africa CDC and African Union expert mission reviewing Congolese traditional COVID-19 therapeutics including Manacovid concluded that the way the available data had been analysed and presented had not generated the evidence needed to establish efficacy and recommended stronger observational and randomized clinical-trial designs. That finding does not prove that every component of Manacovid is pharmacologically inactive; it means the claimed COVID-19 benefit had been treated as established before adequate evidence supported it.

Consequences and human impact

The Democratic Republic of the Congo moved Manacovid beyond experimental investigation into authorized and publicly legitimized treatment. The product received market authorization in November 2020, state reporting publicized claims of 100% recovery among 300 treated patients, and the health minister described the reported results as conclusive and significant while promising ministry support so patients could obtain an effective and safe remedy. Yet in September 2021 the Council of Ministers was still calling for randomization of Manacovid, and a 2022 joint WHO/Africa CDC/African Union mission concluded that the existing data analysis had not generated evidence of efficacy.

How the consequences followed

The evidentiary problem is the leap from promising or preliminary observations to an authorized treatment presented as effective. Medicinal plants can yield useful drugs, and the available evidence did not conclusively prove every component of Manacovid ineffective; it did show that efficacy had not been established at the level claimed.

The 2022 joint expert review provided a high-authority external scientific correction to the efficacy claim. It did not document a formal withdrawal of Manacovid's Congolese market authorization.

24 Nov 2020

Manacovid received authorization for market release as a COVID-19 treatment

300 patients

Preliminary results were publicly presented as 100% recovery after treatment

2022

WHO, Africa CDC and African Union experts said the analysed data had not generated evidence of efficacy

Quantitative figures are highlighted only when the cited evidence supports them. The scale of a related catastrophe is not automatically treated as a death toll caused solely by this belief.

Institutional episode

Democratic Republic of the Congo

2020–2022Policy basis

In late 2020 the Democratic Republic of the Congo authorized Manacovid for the market as a COVID-19 treatment after preliminary results involving 300 patients were presented as showing 100% recovery. The health minister subsequently described the findings as conclusive and significant and pledged institutional support. The government's own September 2021 cabinet minutes, however, still called for randomization of Manacovid. In March 2022 a joint WHO, Africa CDC and African Union expert mission reviewing Manacovid and other Congolese traditional therapeutics concluded that the data as analysed and presented had not generated evidence of efficacy and recommended stronger randomized-trial methods.

Institutions

Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Prevention
Direction de la Pharmacie et du Médicament
Council of Ministers of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Documented consequences

Market authorization for Manacovid as a COVID-19 treatment before randomized efficacy evidence was established
State amplification of a 100% recovery claim from preliminary clinical results
Health-ministry support that publicly framed the product as an effective and safe remedy
Continued government pursuit of randomization after authorization and public promotion

Institutional machinery

Manacovid received authorization for market release on 24 November 2020 after clinical work on 300 symptomatic SARS-CoV-2-positive patients was presented as yielding 100% recovery. In January 2021 the health minister, through the medicines directorate, characterized the reported results as conclusive and significant and promised support so COVID-19 patients could obtain an effective and safe remedy. The treatment nevertheless remained evidentially unsettled: in September 2021 the Council of Ministers called for continued randomization of Manacovid to support recognition as a COVID-19 treatment, and in March 2022 a joint WHO/Africa CDC/African Union expert mission found that the available analyses had not generated evidence of efficacy.

Sources and what they establish

Le ministre de la santé promet d’accompagner le pharmacien congolais géniteur du produit Manacovid lancé sur le marchéAgence Congolaise de Presse
State news agency report reproducing the health minister's position that the reported clinical results were conclusive and significant, stating that Manacovid had been authorized for market release on 24 November 2020, and recording ministry support so patients could obtain an effective and safe remedy.
Le MANACOVID, premier médicament curatif 100% efficace contre la COVID-19Agence Congolaise de Presse
State news agency report documenting the public claim of 100% recovery among 300 treated patients and the 24 November 2020 market authorization while presenting Manacovid as a fully effective curative medicine.
Compte rendu de la vingtième réunion du Conseil des Ministres du 17 septembre 2021Primature de la République Démocratique du Congo
Official cabinet minutes state that efforts should continue in the randomization of Doubase C and Manacovid with a view to their international recognition as COVID-19 treatments, showing that randomized confirmation was still being pursued after Manacovid had already been authorized and publicly promoted.
L’équipe conjointe d’experts (OMS, UA, CDC Afrique) salue les efforts de la République Démocratique du Congo en matière de recherche sur les traitements traditionnels de COVID19World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa
March 2022 report of the joint WHO, Africa CDC and African Union expert mission. It explicitly identifies Manacovid among the products reviewed, states that the way the data were analysed and presented had not generated evidence of efficacy, and recommends stronger observational and randomized clinical-trial designs.

Last reviewed: 24/08/2026