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) and were significantly less likely to develop severe disease by 79% (p=0.046). In addition, the measure of breathlessness was notably reduced in patients treated with interferons (p=0.007). However it is important to remember that this is still a small trial …
Dexamethasone as an Emerging COVID-19 Therapy
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 which has expanded in the NEJM version (Horby P, et al., medRxiv, 2020). As shown in Figure 1, dexamethasone reduced 28 day mortality and is the first COVID-19 therapy to do so. However, it was only effective in patients requiring mechanical ventilation …
Sarilumab, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, and mRNA Vaccines in COVID-19 Updates
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 (21.3%). The RECOVERY trial is aiming to release more results in the coming weeks on the remaining therapies, and is moving at an astonishing rate with results from three different therapies released in less than a month. Sarilumab, an anti-IL6 receptor monoclonal …