Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is claiming that scientists have designed a "highly effective antiviral" which combats the coronavirus with no side effects. 

The new drug eliminates "100%" of the coronavirus, Maduro announced on Sunday, describing it as a "highly effective antiviral."

At its heart is a molecule called DR-10, which is used to treat hepatitis C, human papillomavirus, and Ebola.

The Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) has been working on the antiviral for the past six months, Maduro added. 

The drug will soon be presented to the World Health Organization (WHO) for approval.

The organization recently announced that their studies found several potential treatments for Covid-19 to be essentially ineffective. 

Among them was Remdesivir, which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fully approved last Thursday.

The Solidarity Trial conducted by the WHO was among the world’s biggest studies of COVID-19, having enrolled more than 11,000 patients in 400 hospitals around the globe. However, the data still needs to be peer-reviewed and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The Venezuelan president stressed that the new antiviral, if certified, will be free for all citizens.