This past week, new studies have shed light onto the risks/benefits and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir. For hydroxychloroquine, the preliminary data from New York’s recent clinical trial was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday (Geleris J, et al. 2020). This study was the largest to date (n=1,376), and tested both hydroxychloroquine with and without azithromycin. Overall, for hydroxychloroquine, there was no significant difference in the chance of adverse events such as intubation or death with or without the antibiotic supplementation (Figure 1, hazard …
Remdesivir produces positive results in two trials
This week, there have been exciting updates about two Remdesivir trials with promising results. The first was NIAID’s ACT trial (n=800) which demonstrated a reduction in the time to recovery from 15 days to 11 days in the Remdesivir treated group compared to a control placebo (p < 0.001, NIAID ACTT). In addition, the trial reported a reduced mortality rate of 8% from 11.6% although not quite reaching significance with a p= 0.059. The second trial was from Remdesivir’s manufacturer, Gilead, in which their trial demonstrated no significant difference in clinical recovery between a 5 day …
Remdesivir as a potential emerging therapy and the possible dangers of hydroxychloroquine?
This week, there has been news for both remdesivir and chloroquine/ hydroxychloroquine. Following the announcement of preliminary results from the Gilead Science trials at the University of Chicago, there has been thought to be a promising potential in remdesivir with the trial now rapidly expanding. There has also been further speculation on preemptively released results from a recent Chinese clinical trial, although the study was underpowered compared to other trials. In addition, this study’s design allowed for late enrollment of patients up to 12 days after symptom onset, at which …