Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine for COVID-19: Large Study Finds No Benefit

Scientists have ‘serious doubts’ over study used to discredit malaria drugs

Top researchers question methodology used in Lancet large-scale study, basis for WHO suspending clinical trials of the anti-viral drugs as potential COVID-19 treatments

By Kelly MacNamara 29 May 2020, 7:32 pm 9

Hydroxychloroquine pills. (AP/John Locher)

PARIS (AFP) — Dozens of scientists have raised concerns over a large-scale study of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine published in the Lancet that led to the World Health Organization suspending clinical trials of the anti-viral drugs as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
Hydroxychloroquine, normally used to treat arthritis, has become one of the most high profile drugs being tested for use against the new coronavirus.
This is partly because of comments by public figures including US President Donald Trump, who announced this month he was taking the drug as a preventative measure.
In research published in the Lancet on May 22, Mandeep Mehra of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the US looked at records from 96,000 patients in hundreds of hospitals between December and April and compared those who received treatment with a control group.
The study concluded that treatment with hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, an anti-malarial, showed no benefit and even increased the likelihood of them dying in hospital.
Both drugs can produce potentially serious side effects, particularly heart arrhythmia.
The research published in the Lancet medical journal followed numerous smaller studies that suggested hydroxychloroquine is ineffective in treating COVID-19 and may even be more dangerous than doing nothing.

US President Donald Trump gestures as he leaves a meeting with restaurant industry executives about the coronavirus response, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, May 18, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Within days the WHO temporarily suspended use of the drugs in its Solidarity Trial, which has seen hundreds of hospitals across several countries enroll patients to test possible treatments for COVID-19.
“This impact has led many researchers around the world to scrutinize in detail the publication in question,” said the open letter in response to the study, which was signed by a number of prominent scientists and published Thursday.
It added that this scrutiny raised “both methodological and data integrity concerns.”
One of the main concerns was a lack of information about the countries and hospitals that contributed to the data, which was provi