Preliminary Results from Randomized Open Label Trial of HCQ

New paper on medrxiv yesterday reporting results from (open label) randomized study of Hydroxychloroquine (no Azithromycin) + standard of care vs. standard of care alone in 16 covid-19 treatment centers in China from February 11-29. 150 patients, 75 per arm. They used reduction of viral load as primary endpoint -- HCQ alone did not reduce viral load in these patients, unlike the non-randomized very flawed French study.

Secondary endpoints involving inflammatory cytokine CRP was all that was statistically significant. Was found to be tolerable with the only significant toxicity in HCQ arm diarrhea in 10% of participants. Largely negative study for HCQ alone, except suggesting potential benefit may not be antiviral but anti-inflammatory, which may jibe with anecdotal evidence of potential benefit in severe patients who are typically in trouble because of inflammatory response/cytokine storm. Almost no severe patients in this study or getting Azithromycin, which may explain lack of efficacy but also lack of toxicity since the combination is what raises cardiac risks.

More results will come out in coming months -- just saw there are >75 current clinical trials on HCQ or HCQ+Azithromycin on clinical trials.gov.