(Reuters) – Patients given the malaria drug touted by President Donald Trump as a potential treatment for COVID-19 did not improve significantly over those who did not, according to two new studies published in the medical journal BMJ on Thursday.
FILE PHOTO: A nurse shows a Hydroxychloroquine pill, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Nossa Senhora da Conceicao hospital in Porto Alegre, Brazil, April 23, 2020. REUTERS/Diego Vara
Neither trial was placebo controlled, generally considered the gold standard for clinical data.
In a randomized, controlled trial of 150 patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 in China, researchers found that patients on hydroxychloroquine did not get better significantly faster than those not treated with the drug. Adverse events were also higher in patients receiving the malaria drug.
An observational study of patients in France found