Remdesivir and interferon fall flat in WHO’s megastudy of COVID-19 treatments

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One of the world’s biggest trials of COVID-19 therapies released its long-awaited interim results yesterday—and they’re a letdown. None of the four treatments in the Solidarity trial, which enrolled more than 11,000 patients in 400 hospitals around the globe, increased survival—not even the much-touted antiviral drug remdesivir. 

The results, announced late Thursday, could potentially be a major blow to the efforts of finding a suitable treatment to the disease that has killed more than 217,000 Americans.

The WHO Solidarity Trial examined the effects of four coronavirus different drug regimens: remdesivir; hydroxychloroquine; a combination of the anti-HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir; and interferon.