Cole Maguire

This week I wanted to discuss the exciting and quickly evolving landscape of SARS-CoV-2 antibody trials for treating COVID-19. As always, this information is constantly changing and reflects the status of trials at the timing of writing. Antibody therapy is an extremely promising horizon in the COVID-19 pandemic. By supplementing patients with antibodies specific to…

In the past week the NIH has announced a number of new COVID-19 clinical trials. The first trial is ACTT-3. This trial builds upon the first Remdesivir trial (ACTT-1) and will test the combination of Remdesivir with Interferon-beta-1a which has pleiotropic effects on the immune system. In addition, two antibody trials, ACTIV-2 and ACTIV-3, were…

This past week a lot of exciting announcements came from trials testing novel therapies for COVID-19. First, in a recent press release, Synairgen reported on their interferon beta-1b phase II trial (n=220, 120 out patients and 100 in patients) in which patients on interferon beta therapy were more than twice as likely to recover (p=0.043)…

This week the SOLIDARITY trial published their official report on Dexamethasone as a therapy for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the New England Journal of Medicine (Horby P, et al., NEJM, 2020). This report was previously summarized in a press release prior to publication and as a pre-print on medRxiv with a smaller number of participants…

This week, the United Kingdom’s RECOVERY trial had a press release on the preliminary findings on the antiviral combo therapy of lopinavir and ritonavir, which is commonly used to treat HIV. They reported no significant benefit (p=0.58) from the therapy with a high 28 day mortality for both the treatment (22.1%) and the usual care…

This week the NIH halted its ORCHID Trial which was studying hydroxychloroquine in severe and moderate COVID-19. Following the termination of hydroxychloroquine in the WHO solidarity trial, the scientific community is moving forward  with new therapies. Gilead has begun its trials on nebulized Remdesivir delivery in healthy individuals. This antiviral therapy is currently administered by…

The RECOVERY trial out of the United Kingdom announced their preliminary results on hydroxychloroquine efficacy for COVID-19. Using the primary endpoint of mortality at day 28 post symptoms onset, they enrolled a total of 1542 patients randomised to hydroxychloroquine and 3132 patients randomised to standard care. Overall, they found there was no significant difference between…