Triple combination therapy shows promise for COVID19 patients

USA - As scientists scramble to find COVID19 treatments among existing approved drugs, researchers in Hong Kong may have found a winning combination. Early data shows that a triple antiviral therapy may be safe and effective in treating patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19, according to a study published Friday in Lancet.

All three drugs used in the study are already approved to treat other illnesses. Interferon beta 1b is a drug commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis, lopinavirritonavir is an antiretroviral medication used to treat HIV and ribavirin is commonly used to treat hepatitis C.

Researchers from six different hospitals in Hong Kong assigned over 120 patients to one of two treatment groups. They gave one group of patients suffering mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms a cocktail of all three drugs, and gave the other group only lopinavirritonavir.

Doctors tested the amount of virus in samples taken from the patient’s nose, saliva, back of the throat and stool on a machine that can detect the presence of viral genetic material.

When researchers compared the two groups, they found that the typical patient given the three drug-combo tested negative for the virus five days earlier than those who received just a single drug. In addition, the triple therapy treatment group had shorter hospital stays and reported that their symptoms disappeared much faster than the control group.

The study offers a promising sign that the drug cocktail helped their bodies beat back the virus faster.

Experts are cautiously optimistic about these results, but pointed out that more rigorous studies will be needed to know for sure if this drug combination works. They believe that one of the driving factors in the success of the triple combination therapy groups was early treatment. Treatment was started within seven days of symptom onset for the majority of patients in both groups.

(ABC News)