Kintor Pharmaceutical Ltd of China has announced that the first batch of volunteers has been enrolled for a clinical trial in Brazil of its treatment for Covid-19.

Kintor told the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in writing that the first batch of volunteers comprises 381 men, all at least 50 years old.

The announcement says the treatment, developed in collaboration with Applied Biology Inc. of the United States, uses a male hormone blocker, proxalutamide.

The clinical trial is expected to end next January, Kintor says.

Last month Kintor announced that the treatment would be tried out on men with male-pattern baldness, because androgens seem to help the Covid-19 virus enter human cells.

Kintor said the clinical trial was meant to confirm whether proxalutamide could be used to reduce the rate of confinement in hospital of men infected by the virus.