Hydroxychloroquine is "useless" against Coronavirus, says major clinical trial

A team of British researchers announced on Friday June 5 that they have ended a large study on the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial treatment, in patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, the first results having provided no evidence of effectiveness.

Read also: Chloroquine: Surgisphere, this phantom company at the heart of the Lancet scandal

" We looked at the data and concluded that there was no evidence of a beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalized with COVID and we decided to stop recruiting patients for the hydroxychloroquine part with effect immediate, ”said Martin Landray, a professor at Oxford University and co-director of the RECOVERY study. “ It is not a treatment for COVID. It does not work, ”he added.

" These results should change medical practices around the world, " he insisted. “ We can now stop using this unnecessary treatment. They said they had decided to release these " preliminary results because they have important consequences for patient care and public health ."

Doubts

Recovery is a randomized controlled clinical trial (patients chosen by lot), an experimental method considered to be the most solid for testing drugs. It is being conducted in the UK on more than 11,000 patients from 175 hospitals to assess the effectiveness of several treatments for Covid-19. Tests on the other treatment tracks continue. The hydroxychloroquine part concerned 1,542 patients who received the molecule, compared to 3,132 patients who received standard care.

Hydroxychloroquine is at the heart of a vast controversy around the world as to its potential effectiveness against COVID. This controversy had a new twist on Thursday when three of the authors of a study published in the medical journal The Lancet , which had concluded that the risk of death increased when using this antimalarial treatment in patients with COVID -19, withdrew their signature to this article due to doubts about the data used.

Read also: End of game for the controversial study of the Lancet doubting hydroxychloroquine

The fourth author of the Lancet study is Sapan Desai, the managing director of Surgisphere, the company that provided the data on which this study was based. Surgisphere declined to provide full access to its database for independent review after doubts about their reliability emerged.

Also read: Éric Zemmour: "Raoult against all, all against Raoult"