Efficacy and Tolerability of Hydroxychloroquine in Adult Patients With COVID-19

Summary

The effective medical treatment against COVID-19 infection is still unknown. Chloroquine phosphate is a well-known antimalarial drug which has been on the market for many years. Recently, in vitro study shown that Chloroquine is effective at both entry and at post-entry stages of the COVID-19 infection of Vero E6 cells with promising results. Chloroquine is also an immune-modifier and could distribute to the whole body including lung. Also, chloroquine is cheap and safe, and could be a promising agent against COVID-19 infection. However, only hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) with the extra hydroxyl group is available in Taiwan. Therefore, hydroxychloroquine instead become the best choice for the treatment candidate, since it shows higher in vitro potency (EC50) against COVID-19 with lower toxicity while retaining the original effect which compared with chloroquine.

Timeline

Start

2020-04-01

Primary completion

2020-05-31

Completion

2020-05-31

Publications

• Results Cheng SC, Chang YC, Fan Chiang YL, Chien YC, Cheng M, Yang CH, Huang CH, Hsu YN. First case of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia in Taiwan. J Formos Med Assoc. 2020 Mar;119(3):747-751. doi: 10.1016/j.jfma.2020.02.007. Epub 2020 Feb 26.
• Results Huang C, Wang Y, Li X, Ren L, Zhao J, Hu Y, Zhang L, Fan G, Xu J, Gu X, Cheng Z, Yu T, Xia J, Wei Y, Wu W, Xie X, Yin W, Li H, Liu M, Xiao Y, Gao H, Guo L, Xie J, Wang G, Jiang R, Gao Z, Jin Q, Wang J, Cao B. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020 Feb 15;395(10223):497-506. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30183-5. Epub 2020 Jan 24.
• Results Zhang W, Du RH, Li B, Zheng XS, Yang XL, Hu B, Wang YY, Xiao GF, Yan B, Shi ZL, Zhou P. Molecular and serological investigation of 2019-nCoV infected patients: implication of multiple shedding routes. Emerg Microbes Infect. 2020 Feb 17;9(1):386-389. doi: 10.1080/22221751.2020.1729071. eCollection 2020.
• Results Cortegiani A, Ingoglia G, Ippolito M, Giarratano A, Einav S. A systematic review on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19. J Crit Care. 2020 Jun;57:279-283. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2020.03.005. Epub 2020 Mar 10.
• Results Gautret P, Lagier JC, Parola P, Hoang VT, Meddeb L, Mailhe M, Doudier B, Courjon J, Giordanengo V, Vieira VE, Tissot Dupont H, Honore S, Colson P, Chabriere E, La Scola B, Rolain JM, Brouqui P, Raoult D. RETRACTED: Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial. Int J Antimicrob Agents. 2020 Jul;56(1):105949. doi: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2020.105949. Epub 2020 Mar 20.

Drugs

Indications