Researchers from Columbia University compared more than 800 patients treated with the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to more than 560 who got supportive care and found no evidence of benefit from a malaria drug widely promoted for COVID-19.
Initial studies suggest that malarial drugs and lupus drugs might have antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties that could help coronavirus patients. But it triggered a flurry of research, an endorsement from President Trump, and FDA's emergency authorization.
However, researchers reported on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine that hydroxychloroquine did not lower the risk of dying or needing a ventilator compared to those who got a placebo.
Although the research was observational rather than experimental, doctors said in an editorial that the findings still offer patients and their families useful information for the treatment.
No Evidence of the Benefits of Using Hydroxychloroquine COVID-19 Patients
Although having no results yet of the strict tests of a plethora of drugs under study is frustrating, scientists said that hydroxychloroquine is not a panacea, according to MailOnline.
The said drug could even present many side effects, which include altering the heartbeat that could lead to sudden death. The US FDA has warned its use unless it is for formal studies after Americans started hoarding the drug and several studies reporting alarming rates of dangerous heart arrhythmias, a known side effect of the drug.
Doctors compared 565 patients who did not receive the drug to the 811 others who received it with or without the antibiotic azithromycin; a combo Trump also has pushed. In total, 180 of these patients required ventilators while 232 died, and evidence that the drug did not seem to affect the odds of either.
But some critics of earlier studies said that treatment might have started too late to do any good as they give the drug to patients who are sicker than the others and some two days after admission to the hospital.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) sponsored the research and has launched two of their trials, which already started in April, comparing hydroxychloroquine to the gold standard for establishing safety and effectiveness, the placebo. One of these studies involves COVID-19 patients, while the other aims to see whether the drug can prevent infections in nurses and doctors exposed to the virus.
Remdesivir Gets Emergency Use Authorization from FDA
The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has released an emergency authorization on the use of the antiviral drug remdesivir, originally developed to treat Ebola, as it continues to show promise for improving the survival odds of coronavirus patients. FDA has also encouraged a global push to ramp up production of the said drug.
The intravenous drug has helped coronavirus patients in a shorter time, new clinical trial data suggests. Healthcare workers are will also likely be considering its use.
Gilead's drug showed "quite good news" and sets a new standard of care for COVID-19 patients. More so, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released results from its study showing COVID-19 patients who received remdesivir recovered four days faster than those who didn't take the drug.
FDA will allow remdesivir to be administered for either a five-day or a 10-day dose.
