Controversial Lancet study linking HCQ, deaths in COVID-19 treatment retracted

The authors of the Lancet study linking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and increased death risk during COVID-19 treatment have retracted their statement over unavailability of full dataset for an independent peer-review.

Medical journal The Lancet had earlier issued an “expression of concern” over a large-scale study of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.

In a study, The Lancet had concluded that treatment with hydroxychloroquine showed no benefit and even increased the likelihood of patients dying in hospital. As a result, WHO paused the clinical trials.

“Several concerns were raised with respect to the veracity of the data and analyses conducted by Surgisphere Corporation and its founder and our co-author, Sapan Desai, in our publication,” the authors of the study wrote in the retraction statement published in The Lancet journal.

When an independent third-party peer review of Surgisphere was initiated with the consent of the co-authors of the study to evaluate the origination of the database, and to replicate the analyses presented in the paper, the peer reviewers noted that Surgisphere would not transfer the full dataset.

Also read | Scientists question authenticity of study on hydroxychloroquine drugs

They were also unable to obtain details on client contracts to their servers for analysis since such transfer would violate client agreements with the company and confidentiality requirements.

“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,” the retraction statement noted.

Use of the malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to prevent and treat COVID-19 has been a focus of intense public attention. 

US President Donald Trump has promoted the promise of hydroxychloroquine, despite the absence of gold-standard evidence from randomised clinical trials to prove its effectiveness, and had recently declared he was taking it much to the surprise of his own administration officials.

Also read | Is hydroxychloroquine a ‘miracle’ drug or a death pill?

More than 100 scientists and clinicians had even questioned the authenticity of an influential study, a report in the New York Times said.

In an open letter to The Lancet’s editor, Richard Horton, and the paper’s authors, the journal was asked to provide details about the provenance of the data and called for the study to be independently validated by the World Health Organisation or another institution.

Meanwhile, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that after a “temporary pause” clinical trials of the drug hydroxychloroquine would resume.

Also read | After ‘temporary pause’, WHO to resume hydroxychloroquine trials

The WHO had earlier suspended hydroxychloroquine trials over health concerns.