Hydroxychloroquine: three authors of the study published in the Lancet withdraw

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Three of the four authors of the controversial study on the use of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 published in The Lancet asked for the withdrawal of the article, announced the prestigious medical journal this Thursday evening.

Publicity

The three Lancet authors say they can no longer "  vouch for the veracity of the sources of the primary data  " used for their study on hydroxycholoroquine in the treatment of Covid-19. In question: the refusal of the company having collected them, directed by the fourth author, to give access to the database.

Published on May 22 in the prestigious medical journal, the study was based on data from 96,000 patients hospitalized between December and April in 671 hospitals, and compared the condition of those who received treatment with that of patients who did not haven't had. She concluded that the antimalarial is not beneficial to hospitalized Covid-19 patients and may even be harmful.

Criticisms of the methodology

Its publication had a worldwide impact and spectacular repercussions, in particular pushing the World Health Organization to suspend the clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19. But finally, after many criticisms calling into question the methodology of the study, including on behalf of scientists skeptical on the interest of the hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19, the WHO announced Wednesday the resumption of clinical trials with this molecule.

Critics focused on the data on which the study was based, collected by the American company Surgisphere, headed by fourth author Sapan Desai. "  We launched an independent analysis of Surgisphere with the agreement of Sapan Desai to assess the origin of the elements of the database, confirm that it was complete and replicate the analyzes presented in the article  ", write the other three authors in the text published by Lancet.

But Surgisphere having refused to transfer the database due to confidentiality agreements with its customers (the hospitals responsible for the data), the experts commissioned "  could not conduct an independent review and informed us of their withdrawal of the peer review process,  ”they add.

Today, three of the authors have retracted "Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis" Read the Retraction notice and statement from The Lancet https://t.co/pPNCJ3nO8n pic.twitter .com / pB0FBj6EXr

( With AFP)

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