Amid concerns around the safety of hydroxychloroquine, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it will temporarily suspend a trial into the anti-malarial drug.
The decision follows the publication of a multinational registry analysis study published in The Lancet on 22 May 2020, which found that people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems than those who were not.
The study by Mehra et al., also found that there were no benefits to treating COVID-19 patients with the drug.
“We were unable to confirm the benefit of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, when used alone or with a macrolide, on in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19,” the study authors conclude.
“Each of these drug regimens was associated with decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias when used for treatment of COVID-19.”
Australian medical experts have responded to the announcement, with Dr Ian Musgrave, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine, School of Medicine Sciences within the Discipline of Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide, saying that “the suspension of the WHO clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment is understandable”.
“Every clinical trial must balance risk and benefits to its participants. Hydroxychloroquine is used to treat malaria and autoimmune disease and has known adverse effects.”
Dr Gaetan Burgio, Group Leader and Head of the Transgenesis Facility at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, at Australian National University adds that following the findings of this recent study “the decision to temporarily halt the Solidarity trial for hydroxychloroquine and to review the safety data in patients that underwent this trial is expected and logical”.
“Very careful consideration has been given to The Lancet article,” says Professor Marc Pellegrini, joint Head of Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Professor Pellegrini, who is also the lead investigator of COVID SHIELD, Australia’s first clinical trial to determine whether hydroxychloroquine can prevent COVID-19, adds: “We have taken the advice of the authors of that paper who emphasise their study must be cautiously interpreted and must not be generalised with regard to the treatment (or prophylaxis) of people who are not unwell.”
“The COVID SHIELD trial is continuing and participants are being kept well informed,” he explains.
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