The multi-country Solidarity trial anchored by the World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the four repurposed drugs that it examined — remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), lopinavir and interferon — are ineffective on the patients of Covid-19.
Based on data collected from the trial, the WHO has released an interim report of patients’ responses to repurposed drugs (for Covid-19 treatment. The trial began in March. In 405 hospitals in 30 countries, 11,266 adults were randomised. Of these, 2,750 volunteers were given Remdesivir, 954 HCQ, 1,411 Lopinavir, 651 Interferon plus Lopinavir, and 1,412 only Interferon. The trial found that there was little or no effect of these drugs on the outcome of Covid-19 over a 28-day period.
The study looked at how each of these treatments affected mortality, ventilator use, and length of hospital stay in patients that were hospitalised with Covid-19. The results of the trial are yet to be peer-reviewed and have been uploaded on the preprint server medRxiv.
After finding that hydroxychloroquine had no positive effects on Covid-19 patients, the WHO, FDA, Oxford University and other countries pulled the plug on their ongoing trials.
WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that during the trials, the HCQ and lopinavir/ritonavir trials were stopped after they proved ineffective. But the other trials continued planned.
“We’re looking at what’s next. We’re looking at monoclonal anti-bodies, we’re looking at immunomodulators and some of the newer anti-viral drugs that have been developed in the last few months,” Swaminathan told Reuters. Remdesivir has been the frontrunner in re-purposed drugs with various studies showing a positive recovery rate in patients.
According to a report by Reuters, data from a US study of remdesivir lead by Gilead showed the use of the treatment cut Covid-19 recovery time by five days in a trial comprising 1,062 patients.
“The emerging (WHO) data appears inconsistent, with more robust evidence from multiple randomized, controlled studies published in peer-reviewed journals validating the clinical benefit of remdesivir,” Gilead told Reuters.
With agency inputs