Covid-19: update on clinical trials

Audio 4:25

By: Simon Rozé Follow

It is now our weekly meeting. Every Thursday, RFI takes stock of the search for a treatment to fight the epidemic of Covid-19, the disease from China, and which we still do not know how to cure despite the multiplication of clinical trials in the world and controversies.

Publicity

The results of a study carried out in Hong Kong published in the prestigious journal The Lancet

This is a study that was conducted between February 10 and March 20. 127 patients participated, divided into two groups: one for control and another for which triple therapy was administered.

Interferons, the duo lopinavir-ritonavir: anti-virals used against HIV, and finally an anti-flu, ribavirin.

These molecules had each been tested alone in other tests to determine their effectiveness against Covid-19, without obtaining a conclusive result. The originality of this study is to have tried these treatments together, with promising results.

Frédéric Adnet is the head of emergency at Avicenne hospital in Bobigny.

Frédéric Adnet

Simon Rozé

Are these results worth further investigation ?

They are very interesting especially since they are solid because the study was properly conducted. It's terrible but it must be emphasized because it has almost become a rare thing. I will not go back to the controversy of hydroxychloroquine and azythromicine, but even the AP-HP, the Public Assistance of the hospitals of Paris, has "sinned" by precipitation by communicating results on a test whereas 'It is still on tocilizumab which could have an effect on what is called the cytokine storm, when the immune system gets carried away in some patients with Covid. This affair had led to the resignation in protest of the trial monitoring committee, an extremely rare thing.

Frédéric Adnet

Simon Rozé

A publication that we are just waiting for is that concerning the European European trial Discovery. Much has been said about it and publication is scheduled for today.

Normally the publication of the results is planned for this Thursday. But at best they will only be intermediaries. Discovery indeed suffered from the “shallot race” of which Frédéric Adnet spoke, when it was launched in March, supposed to be a European trial with 3,200 patients and 4 treatments studied.

In the end, he only had a European by name since all the patients except one are in France. Suddenly there are only about 750 patients; with 2,400 fewer patients, the results will be much less robust.

This difficulty in recruiting patients is not new, but we only learned about it very recently. Again it's a shame because Discovery is an essay that still raises a lot of hope. If it had been carried out as planned, Discovery could have advanced the search.

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our daily chronicle  Coronavirus info

• The practical questions  :
→  What is known about the mode of contagion
→  disparities and inequalities in coronaviruses: what to remember
→  What outcomes for clinical trials?
→  A vaccine, the only solution to stem the pandemic?
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  : "  The response, country by country  "

• Each evening, find the State of the world and Africa facing the pandemic

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

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