U-turn over drug fears

– Three of the four authors behind a large-scale study in The Lancet that raised safety fears over the use of common antimalarial drugs to treat Covid-19 retracted their paper on Thursday, blaming a healthcare company that supplied the dataset.

The study retrospectively analysed about 96 000 patient records, finding that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine showed no benefit against the coronavirus and even increased the risk of dying in hospital, with heart arrhythmia a particular concern.

The finding led the World Health Organisation to suspend clinical trials into the medicines, but it was soon followed by widespread concern among scientists over a lack of information about the countries and hospitals that contributed data.

Mandeep Mehra, a professor at Harvard University who led the work, along with Frank Ruschitzka of the University Hospital Zurich and Amit Patel of the University of Utah, said: “Based on this development, we can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources.

“Due to this unfortunate development, the authors request that the paper be retracted.”

They stressed that they had worked “in good faith and at a time of great need...” – AFP

Washington