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Yet another trial finds hydroxychloroquine doesn't treat COVID-19

Embargoed until: Publicly released:
Peer-reviewed: This work was reviewed and scrutinised by relevant independent experts.

Randomised controlled trial: Subjects are randomly assigned to a test group, which receives the treatment, or a control group, which commonly receives a placebo. In 'blind' trials, participants do not know which group they are in; in ‘double blind’ trials, the experimenters do not know either. Blinding trials helps removes bias.

People: This is a study based on research using people.

A randomised controlled trial of hydroxychloroquine has once again found the treatment did not significantly improve the outcome of patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The study compared the effects of hydroxychloroquine versus a placebo on almost 500 patients and their clinical status at 14 days, beginning treatments between 3 to 7 days after the onset of symptoms. The outcomes after 14 days could include 'home', 'requiring noninvasive or invasive ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation', 'hospitalized' or 'died'. As with many other previous studies, the trial found, when compared to the placebo, hydroxychloroquine had no statistically significant impact on the patients' outcomes.

Journal/conference: JAMA

Link to research (DOI): 10.1001/jama.2020.22240

Organisation/s: Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Funder: This study was supported by grants from the NHLBI (3U01HL123009-06S1, U01HL123009, U01HL122998, U01HL123018, U01HL123023, U01HL123008, U01HL123031, U01HL123004, U01HL123027, U01HL123010, U01HL123033, U01HL122989, U01HL123022, and U01HL123020). The REDCap data tools used for this study were supported by a grant from NCATS (5UL1TR002243). The work at Massachusetts General Hospital was supported in part by the Harvard Catalyst/Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (NCATS, NIH awards UL1TR001102 and UL1TR002541-01). Sandoz, a Novartis division, supplied the hydroxychloroquine and placebo used in this trial.

Media release

From: JAMA

Effect of Hydroxychloroquine on Clinical Status

JAMA

Media advisory: The full study and editorial are linked to this news release.

What The Study Did: This randomized trial compares the effects of hydroxychloroquine versus placebo on patients’ clinical status at 14 days (home, requiring noninvasive or invasive ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, hospitalized, died) among adults hospitalized with COVID-19.

Authors: Wesley H. Self, M.D., M.P.H., of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, is the corresponding author.

(doi:10.1001/jama.2020.22240)

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