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The doctor leading the world’s largest study on the treatment of COVID-19 says Donald Trump should not receive experimental drugs that have not yet been fully tested.
Professor Martin Landray, deputy chief investigator for the UK NHS Recovery Trial, said the cocktail of antibodies given to the president was promising, but had not yet been shown to be safe and effective.
In an interview with Sky News, he said: “The same principles apply to all patients.
“Don’t expose people to drugs unless you know they will be helpful, except in the context of a clinical trial.”
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The temptation to overtreat important patients, sometimes to their detriment, is known colloquially by physicians as VIP syndrome.
The president had a large medical team dedicated to his care at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and he will continue to receive treatment at the White House.
“It doesn’t matter what your job is or what your role is in society,” said Professor Landray.
“The response of your body, the response of the virus to a drug, is not determined by the state, but by the fundamentals of biology and medicine.”
The recovery assay has just begun the first study of Regeneron’s antibody cocktail, known as REGN-COV2. It is the first treatment designed to attack the virus.
Around 2,000 NHS patients across the UK will receive the antibodies, and their result will be compared to a similar number receiving standard medical care.
“The first data from a few hundred patients shows that the drug is effective against the virus. It is bad for the virus, what we do not yet know is whether it is good for the patient,” said Professor Landray.
Professor Landray says the same principles should apply to all patients
“Does it shorten the time in the hospital, reduce the need for a ventilator, and improve survival? We have to know.”
The Recovery Trial has already shown that the cheap and widely available steroid dexamethasone reduces deaths by one third in patients on ventilators.
The drug was delivered to President Trump over the weekend when his blood oxygen levels fell slightly below normal and there are questions about whether he met the criteria for treatment.
The trial has shown that dexamethasone reduces deaths by a third in patients on ventilators
Giving the steroid too early could reduce the immune response to the virus.
Professor Landray said: “We were pretty clear that if the patients are in the hospital but they don’t require oxygen, they don’t benefit from the steroid.
“There are side effects for all drugs and I would only administer one when I expect there to be benefits.”
Professor Landray said the treatments would continue to be tested as part of the recovery trial.
If the mortality rate could be significantly reduced, then normal life could be resumed, even in the absence of a vaccine.
