A study, published last week in Med, a new journal from Cell Press, has found that Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir) and Arbidol (umifenovir) are ineffective at treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Kaletra and Arbidol are antiviral drugs. Kaletra is prescribed for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, while Arbidol for the treatment and prevention of influenza.
The study found that these drugs did not improve clinical outcomes of patients hospitalized with mild to moderate COVID-19.
Co-senior author Dr. Linghua Li, the Vice-Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases of Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital, China, said, “We found that neither lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) nor Arbidol could benefit clinical outcomes for patients and that they might bring some side effects.”
“And although the sample size is small, we believe it could still provide meaningful suggestions for proper application of LPV/r or Arbidol for COVID-19,” she added.
The study researchers chose these antivirals as potential candidates for treating COVID-19 in guidance that was issued in February by the National Health Commission of China, which was based on in vitro studies and previous clinical data from SARS and MERS, the diseases that are caused by similar strains of the coronavirus.
Other studies have already found that Kaletra did not improve outcomes for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
“It is important to know if lopinavir/ritonavir is effective for mild/moderate cases with COVID-19,” Dr. Li said. “If it is, the medicine could prevent mild/moderate cases from deteriorating to severe status and help reduce the mortality rate.”
The trial included 86 patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, of which, 34 received Kaletra, 35 received Arbidol, while the remaining 17 were given a placebo. All of them showed similar findings at 7 and 14 days. There were no differences in the rates of fever reduction, cough relief, or improvement in chest CT between the groups.
Instead, patients who received either Kaletra or Arbidol had side effects such as nausea, loss of appetite, and diarrhea, while no adverse events were reported in the group that received a placebo.
“Our findings suggest that we need to cautiously consider before using these drugs,” Dr. Li explained. “Researchers need to keep working to find a really effective antiviral regimen against COVID-19, but meanwhile, any conclusions about antiviral regimens need strict and scientific clinical trials and appropriate caution.”
“The general public, however, shouldn’t panic just because currently there’s no specific antiviral medicine currently,” she added. “Quarantine and good personal health protection could help us prevent people from getting infected with COVID-19, and even in case of infection, the present comprehensive treatment can still enable the vast majority of patients to return to health.”
