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While corona numbers are increasing around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports sobering interim results of its drug tests. None of the four drugs tested – remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, and interferon beta – could help hospital patients with Covid-19 in any significant way. The active ingredients could not avoid, or only minimally, the risk of dying or needing artificial respiration. Nor did they shorten the hospital stay. The agents were tested on more than 11,000 hospital patients in 30 countries. The study, called the Solidarity Therapeutics Trial, has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The disappointing results of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine and the HIV drug lopinavir are not surprising; both had already been shown to be ineffective in other studies. The remdesivir originally developed against Ebola, on the other hand, had previously shown that Covid patients need about 30 percent less time to recover. Total recovery time was not investigated in the current WHO trial; therefore, it is not in question. However, based on previous studies, there was evidence that remdesivir might also reduce the risk of dying from Covid disease. This benefit could not be confirmed in the current trial.
Experts were also hopeful for interferon beta, which is used against serious viral diseases. Smaller studies had suggested that those treated recovered faster and were less likely to suffer serious illness or death. At least in the current study, this hope could not be fulfilled. To all the disappointment, Brian Oliver, a molecular biologist at the Sydney University of Technology, calls the study “incredibly important.” Knowing which drugs do not help is essential so that doctors can use effective drugs such as dexamethasone. The steroid had been shown in previous studies to prevent deaths in a significant proportion of seriously ill Covid patients.
