A trial by WHO with four drugs including the antiviral Remedisivir in the treatment of COVID-19 has found that the repurposed medicines have little or no effect on the duration of time the patients spend in hospital or their survival.
The researchers wrote in a preprint on the findings of the WHO’s Solidarity trial that was released on medRxiv, “These Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir and Interferon regimens appeared to have little or no effect on hospitalized COVID-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay”.
The results have yet to be peer reviewed.
The randomised trial of the drugs took place in 405 hospitals across 30 countries and involved 11,266 patients. Some 2,750 people were allocated remdesivir, 954 hydroxychloroquine, 1,411 lopinavir, 651 interferon plus lopinavir, 1,412 only interferon, and 4,088 were given none of the study drugs.
Remdesivir, developed for Ebola by US pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, was one of the earliest treatments put forward for COVID-19.
Gilead in a statement said the data from the trial had not undergone vigorous review, and that it was unclear whether any “conclusive findings” could be drawn from the results.
The Food and Drug Administration in the US on May 1 gave emergency use authorisation to Remdesivir and has since been given regulatory approval in several other countries.
Meanwhile, the WHO said that Newer anti-viral drugs, immunomodulators and anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies are now being considered for evaluation.