Despite the world urgently looking for a coronavirus cure, Australian army veterans have warned against one such "wonder cure".

The veterans were given the controversial drug whilst in East Timor and have urged scientists to consider the side effects of using anti-malarial tafenoquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment. 

Drug company 60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals (60P) is planning to conduct clinical research to determine its effectiveness in human beings.

"Like many companies, 60P and its partners are trying to do our part to provide solutions for treating and preventing COVID 19," he said.

Doctors and veterans have quickly raised concerns about the anti-malarial drugs' safety.

Glen Norton is one of almost 700 soldiers who took the anti-malarial during trials conducted by the Defence Force between 1998 and 2002.

Two decades on after the trial, Norton still suffers from mood swings, depression, anxiety, hallucinations and many more.

"One minute I would be happy, and the next minute I would be curled up in the corner somewhere crying," he said.

"This drug has totally destroyed my personal life."

Mr Norton said he first began noticing changes when he took tafenoquine while deployed in East Timor in 2000.

"We used to call Sunday nights psycho night because of the side effects," he said.

"All of us that were on those drugs were having nightmares and things like that — we had people literally screaming in their sleep like they're being murdered."

He's been horrified to hear that the drug is being considered as a treatment for coronavirus.

"I would prefer to catch COVID-19 and take the risk than to let anyone go through the pain and suffering myself and other soldiers have experienced."

American epidemiologist Remington Nevin said tafenoquine belonged to a class of anti-malaria medications shown to be neurotoxic.

"I am afraid we're seeing the same thing potentially playing out with tafenoquine," Dr Nevin said.

"Our group's concern is that there is simply incomplete study data on these drugs."

He said that there were critical flaws in the study conducted on soldiers.

"When symptoms develop in this environment, it's very tempting to attribute these — and possibly misattribute these — simply to the stresses of deployment and not to the drugs," he said.

"I'm also concerned about the ethics of the trials that have been conducted and the quality of clinical data that have been collected from these studies."

However, others have argued that it's safe.

University of Queensland anti-malaria expert James McCarthy gave evidence to a Senate inquiry into the use of tafenoquine in the Defence Force in 2018.

"Comprehensive reviews of multiple clinical trials suggest that the incidence of neurological side effects was no higher in those receiving tafenoquine compared with a placebo," he said.

Photo credits: ABC