A triple-antiviral therapy regimen of interferon-beta1, lopinavir/ritonavir, and ribavirin shortened median time to COVID-19 viral negativity (mild to moderate cohorts) in a small, randomized trial (n=84) done by the University of Hong Kong (China). The median hospital stay was 9 days for patients treated with the combination, compared with 14.5 days for controls (HR 2.72, P = .016) which is very good.
"Patients who received the combination also had significantly shorter time to complete alleviation of symptoms as assessed by a National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS2, a system for detecting clinical deterioration in patients with acute illnesses) score of 0 (4 vs. 8 days, respectively; hazard ratio 3.92, P < .0001), and to a Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score of 0 (3 vs. 8 days, HR 1.89, P = .041)." (Both HRs were in the good to very good range which is definitively positive-Sharon)
Drugs used:
#1 Interferon-beta1 is re-purposed MS drug (injection).
#2 lopinavir and ritonavir is a re-purposed (2 drugs in one) HIV drug. It showed no success when used alone in terms of covid-19 treatment per NEJM. In this trial, it was apparently the control which is an issue for me.
#3 ribavirin is a re-purposed anti viral primarily for Hepatitis C. Definitely toxic when taken alone and can cause heart SDS.
My one concern: the combination drug lopinavir and ritonavir was the control which we already knew was not successful when used alone. So why use it as the control unless nothing else seems relevant, or it was the most convenient drug to use as the control. I would assume this was the case.
Sharon
