WHO halts hydroxychloroquine study for Covid-19 after safety concerns

The World Health Organisation (WHO) will temporarily halt the testing of hydroxychloroquine as a drug to treat Covid-19 due to safety concerns.

The anti-malarial drug was first marked by the WHO for its global Solidarity Trial, which is comparing four potential treatments for Covid-19 against standard of care options. The trial involves over 400 hospitals across 35 countries, with 3,500 patients already having been recruited.

However, safety concerns reported in an observational study published by the Lancet, suggest that the drug contributes to a higher mortality rate for patients who have received hydroxychloroquine.

The study examined a total of 96,032 Covid-19 patients, 14,888 of whom received either hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine – with or without an antibiotic. The researchers of the study were unable to confirm any benefit for patients using either hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine and found that there was an increased mortality rate. Specifically, the death rates for patients taking hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were 18% & 16.4% respectively, compared to 9% for patients within the control group.  

The study also found that patients administered either hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, with or without an antibiotic, were more likely to develop hearty rhythm complications.

Due to this data, the WHO has decided to implement a temporary pause on the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine within the Solidarity Trial. The WHO has iterated that use of the drugs are generally safe for patients with malaria or autoimmune diseases.

“The Executive Group of the Solidarity Trial, representing 10 of the participating countries, met on Saturday and has agreed to review a comprehensive analysis and critical appraisal of all evidence available globally.

The review will consider data collected so far in the Solidarity Trial and in particular robust randomised available data, to adequately evaluate the potential benefits and harms from this drug.

The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board. The other arms of the trial are continuing,” Tedros Adhanom, WHO director general said.

Hydroxychloroquine received mass attention when US president Donald Trump said he was taking the anti-malarial drug to prevent Covid-19.