Hydroxychloroquine hopes dashed as large study finds no great advantage to antimalaria drug in Covid-19 fight
- New York study in New England Journal of Medicine concludes drug leads to neither a higher nor lower chance of patients ending up with intubation or death
- Drugs in the chloroquine family continue to grab attention as researchers around the world try to treat coronavirus
Researchers at Columbia University observed nearly 1,400 patients at a large medical centre in New York City in March and April. They found hydroxychloroquine use led to neither a higher nor lower chance of patients ending up with intubation or death.
“Our results cannot completely exclude the possibility of either modest benefit or harm of hydroxychloroquine treatment, but the findings do not support its use outside of randomised clinical trials,” said Professor Neil Schluger, the corresponding author of the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday.
In the observational study, about 60 per cent of the patients received hydroxychloroquine while the remainder did not. Researchers then examined the relationship between the use of the drug and the development of respiratory failure that led to intubation or death.
Of the 346 patients who developed respiratory failure, 262 were given hydroxychloroquine – 32 per cent of the 811 who received the drug. Meanwhile, nearly 15 per cent of the 565 patients not given hydroxychloroquine were intubated or died.