Two more experimental COVID-19 drugs, including the much-touted Remdesivir, appear to have fallen by the wayside, failing to show significant reductions in mortality among seriously ill patients. Interim results on Remdesivir and three other drug treatments being studied as part of the WHO Solidarity Therapeutics Trial, the world’s largest randomized controlled trial of COVID-19 drugs, were published Friday on the pre-print journal, medRxiv.org.
The WHO-coordinated study, covering some 11,266 participants across 30 countries, found that the antiviral Remdesivir, as well as Interferon, had no effect on 28-day mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients and little or no effect in reducing the initiation of ventilation or the duration of hospital stay. While the news on Remdesivir was fresh, the study also reported results of treatments with two other drugs, the anti-malarial Hydroxychloroquine, and the HIV/AID drug combination Lopinavir/Ritonavir, which have already been largely disqualified as good treatment options, in light of findings from studies published over the spring and early summer.
“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,” states the study. “The mortality findings contain most of the randomized evidence on Remdesivir and Interferon, and are consistent with meta-analyses of mortality in all major trials.”
The study includes findings from drug trials covering some 11,266 participants across 30 countries, with 2750 participants administered Remdesivir, 954 Hydroxychloroquine, 1411 Lopinavir, 651 Interferon plus Lopinavir, 1412 Interferon, and 4088 receiving no treatment drug.
In a sober announcement of the results at Friday’s WHO press conference, Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu made it even more plainly clear:
“Interim results from the trial now show that the other two drugs in the trial, Remdesivir and Interferon, have little or no effect in preventing death from COVID-19 or reducing time in hospital.
“For the moment, the corticosteroid steroid dexamethasone is still the only therapeutic shown to be effective against COVID-19 for patients with severe disease,” Dr Tedros added.
WHO Will Push On To Test Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Antivirals
Despite the dead-end reached with the drugs that only a few months ago had seemed to offer potential for improving COVID treatment, Dr Tedros also said that WHO Solidarity Trial would push ahead in coordinating new research to “assess other treatments, including monoclonal antibodies and new antivirals.”
The potential of drugs containing controlled portions of anti-SARS-CoV2 monoclonal antibodies have catapulted into the spotlight recently, after US President Donald Trump claimed that such a cocktail by the pharma company Regeneron had virtually “cured’ him of COVID-19.
Even so, clinical trials on a similar treatment, under development by Eli Lilly, were halted just this week after an adverse reaction occurred in one trial participant. Despite the lack of evidence about either drug, both Eli Lilly and Regeneron have already filed requests with the United States Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorizations of their products. Remdesivir had also been approved by the FDA as well as by the European Medicines Agency, under the same EUA process.
The WHO Director General said that the global Solidarity Trial also is considering for evaluation other, newer antiviral drugs and immunomodulators – the latter are being studied because of the role they may play in tempering over-reactions by the immune system.
Image Credits: European Medicines Agency, WHO.
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