British doctors are to begin clinical trials of a vaccine against Covid-19 infection tomorrow – as trials of antiviral medicines continued to prove disappointing.
The vaccine trial is being led at Oxford University, it was announced.
Meanwhile Chinese doctors reported that two common antiviral medications have proved ineffective against Covid-19.
The drug lopinavir/ritonavir is used in some countries against HIV-1, and Arbidol is used to treat influenza. They were investigated by Dr Linghua Li, of the Centre for Infectious Diseases of Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues.
The study was carried out on the advice of the National Health Commission of China, due to the drugs’ effects on severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome.
A group of 86 patients with mild or moderate Covid-19 were involved. At random, 34 were given lopinavir/ritonavir, 35 given Arbidol and 17 had no antiviral medication.
After one week, and when tested again at two weeks, no differences were seen between the groups in terms of reduced fever or cough alleviation, or improvement on a chest scan.
Similar side-effects – diarrhoea, nausea, and loss of appetite – were seen in both drug groups.
Findings were published on April 17 in the Cell press journal Med. Dr Li says: "We found that neither lopinavir/ritonavir 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 lopinavir/ritonavir or Arbidol for Covid-19."
She added: "Our findings suggest that we need to cautiously consider before using these drugs. 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.”
Li, Y. et al. Efficacy and safety of lopinavir/ritonavir or arbidol in adult patients with mild/moderate COVID-19: an exploratory randomized controlled trial. Med 17 April 2020; doi: 10.1016/j.medj.2020.04.001
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