Hydroxychloroquine does NOT treat Covid-19: Biggest study into the Donald Trump-backed anti-malaria drug is ended with 'immediate effect' after researchers found it made no difference
Hydroxychloroquine does not treat coronavirus, according to the world's biggest trial of the anti-malaria drug backed by US President Donald Trump.
Oxford University scientists pulled the controversial drug from the RECOVERY trial today after results showed it had no benefit on patients hospitalised with the virus.
A quarter of NHS patients given hydroxychloroquine died from Covid-19, compared to 23.5 per cent who were not prescribed the drug.
The scientists running the trial, which has recruited more than 1,500 patients from around 170 UK hospitals, said the results were 'pretty compelling', adding: 'This isn't a treatment that works.'
Professor Martin Landray, lead author of the study, added: 'If you're admitted to hospital with Covid – you, your mother or anyone else - hydroxychloroquine is not the right treatment. It doesn't work.'
He called for doctors around the world to stop using the drug, which can cause a slew of nasty side effects including heart arrhythmias, headaches and vomiting.
But Professor Landray said the results do not necessarily mean the tablets cannot prevent people from catching Covid-19 in the first place, which several studies are still investigating.
Early results on hydroxychloroquine from the RECOVERY trial were not supposed to released until July. But the study's chief investigators said they felt compelled to release the data and set the record straight on the drug, which has been at the centre of furious debate.
US President Donald Trump hailed it as a wonder drug at the start of the crisis and admitted to taking it himself to ward off the infection, while countries like China and India regularly prescribe it to Covid-19 patients.
It comes after medical journal The Lancet last night retracted a controversial study that found hydroxychloroquine raised the risk of death in Covid patients, which led to trials being halted around the world.
Hydroxychloroquine does not treat coronavirus, the largest study into the drug has found
A total of 1,542 patients were randomly given hydroxychloroquine and compared with 3,132 patients randomised to receive standard care in the Oxford trial.
After 28 days, 25.7 per cent of patients taking the malaria tablets passed away from the virus compared to 23.5 per cent who were not given the medicine.
With tens of thousands of Covid patients around the globe still being prescribed the drug, today's results could have a knock-on effect around the globe.
Oxford University's Professor Peter Horby, who is also heading the trial, said he phoned the World Health Organization (WHO) this morning to share the findings.
He has advised the global health body to drop the drug from its SOLIDARITY trial and focus efforts on other promising medicines.
Professor said he expected WHO to 'reconsider' trialling the drug on the back of the findings.
He added: 'Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have received a lot of attention and have been used very widely to treat Covid patients despite the absence of any good evidence.
'The RECOVERY trial has shown that hydroxychloroquine is not an effective treatment in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.
'Although it is disappointing that this treatment has been shown to be ineffective, it does allow us to focus care and research on more promising drugs.'
US President Trump has hailed hydroxychloroquine as a game changer since March. Last month he revealed he was taking it as a preventative to stop him catching Covid
Announcing the findings today, Professor Landray said: 'We have concluded that there is no beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.
'We have therefore decided to stop enrolling participants to the hydroxychloroquine arm of the RECOVERY trial with immediate effect.
'There was no significant difference in the primary endpoint of 28-day mortality. There was also no evidence of beneficial effects on hospital stay duration or other outcomes.
'These data convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID-19.'
Professor Horby and Professor Landray were supposed to be 'blinded' from the results from RECOVERY - which is also looking into four other promising Covid therapies - until July.
But concerns about the safety of hydroxychloroquine began mounting in late May when a controversial paper published in The Lancet ruled the tablets raised the risk of death in Covid patients.
The paper - which has now been retracted after being accused of using sloppy data - spooked research teams around the world into suspending trials of the drug, including the WHO's SOLIDARITY study and two separate trials in the UK.
Professor Horby said the concerns about the anti malaria drug's safety 'caused us to look at the blinded data more quickly than we would have.'
The UK's drugs watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), suspended recruitment for the COPCOV and Principle trials last week on the back of the Lancet paper's findings.
COPCOV is a separate Oxford study being carried out alongside Brighton University, investigating whether the malaria tablets can prevent coronavirus infection in the first place.
Hydroxychloroquine will be given to more than 40,000 frontline healthcare workers from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.
The COPCOV researchers believe their research is safe because it does not involve patients already ill with coronavirus. They remain confident their study will go ahead.
The MHRA also halted the use of hydroxychloroquine in the Principle trial, which is studying people aged 50 to 64 who have COVID-19 symptoms and a chronic health condition such as heart disease, asthma or cancer.
It is thought that the malaria drug will be pulled from the study on the back of the results from the RECOVERY trial.
The WHO said on Wednesday it was ready to resume its SOLIDARITY trial, but it has been advised against doing so by the RECOVERY researchers.
The Lancet study was a 'retrospective observational' study, using a data set from an analytics firm, to see what effects the drug had had on some COVID-19 patients, compared to those who did not get it.
They are weaker than randomised studies, like RECOVERY, which are seen as the gold standard in research because they randomly assign a treatment to one group of people and a dummy to another group so that the two can be compared.
President Trump was among the first to wax lyrical about the possible benefits of hydroxychloroquine for coronavirus patients in March.
Early lab studies in petri dishes showed the drug could fend off coronavirus and prevent it from replicating.
In the absence of clear scientific evidence, some authorities and consumers are buying up stocks of the drug in case it turns out to be effective.
Britain, for example, was spending millions of pounds bulk-buying tablets in case they proved to be effective.
The drug is also being regularly used in China and India and has been approved for emergency use in severely ill patients in the US.
Hydroxychloroquine does NOT treat Covid-19: Biggest study into the Donald Trump-backed anti-malaria drug is ended with 'immediate effect' after researchers found it made no difference
![Hydroxychloroquine does NOT treat Covid-19: Biggest study into the Donald Trump-backed anti-malaria drug is ended with 'immediate effect' after researchers found it made no difference]()
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June 06, 2020
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