Study finds Hydroxychloroquine no better than placebo
A study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has found that the drug hydroxychloroquine does not prevent infection from COVID-19.
The international study used data from a clinical trial led in Canada by Drs. Todd Lee and Emily G. McDonald at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), in collaboration with partners at the Universities of Manitoba (led by Dr. Ryan Zarychanski) and Alberta (led Dr. Ilan Schwartz).
“UM played a key role in promoting this important randomized clinical trial across Canada,” said Zarychanski, Manitoba lead and associate professor of internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba and senior scientist, Research Institute in Oncology and Hematology.
‘’Our study’s results set politics aside and provide unbiased evidence to guide practice in the prevention of COVID-19 and reinforce the importance of randomized clinical trials as we work together nationally and internationally to combat the novel coronavirus,’’ said Zarychanski, also a clinician-scientist who recruited many junior UM investigators to join the clinical trial team including Lauren MacKenzie, Lauren Kelly, and Sylvain Lother in addition to a senior clinician, Dr. Glen Drobot.
News of the study’s results were picked up by media around the world, including The Guardian, CTV News, and the New York Times.