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Early treatment of Favipiravir in COVID-19 patients without pneumonia: a multicentre, open-labelled, randomized control study

R. Sirijatuphat, W. Manosuthi, S. Niyomnaitham, A. Owen, Katherine Copeland, L. Charoenpong, Manoch Rattanasompattikul, S. Mahasirimongkol et al.

medRxiv, 2022

62 participants · 26 citations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We investigated Favipiravir (FPV) efficacy in mild cases of COVID-19 without pneumonia and its effects towards viral clearance, clinical condition, and risk of COVID-19 pneumonia development. PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2-infected patients without pneumonia were enrolled (2:1) within 10 days of symptomatic onset into FPV and control arms. The former received 1800 mg FPV twice-daily (BID) on Day 1 and 800 mg BID 5–14 days thereafter until negative viral detection, while the latter received only supportive care. The primary endpoint was time to clinical improvement, defined by a National Early Warning Score (NEWS) of ≤1. 62 patients (41 female) comprised the FPV arm (median age: 32 years, median BMI: 22 kg/m²) and 31 patients (19 female) comprised the control arm (median age: 28 years, median BMI: 22 kg/m²). The median time to sustained clinical improvement, by NEWS, was 2 and 14 days for FPV and control arms, respectively (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of 2.77, 95% CI 1.57–4.88, P < .001). The FPV arm also had significantly higher likelihoods of clinical improvement within 14 days after enrolment by NEWS (79% vs. 32% respectively, P < .001). 8 (12.9%) and 7 (22.6%) patients in FPV and control arms developed mild pneumonia at a median (range) of 6.5 (1–13) and 7 (1–13) days after treatment, respectively (P = .316). All recovered well without complications. We can conclude that early treatment of FPV in symptomatic COVID-19 patients without pneumonia was associated with…

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Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 62 participants or records.

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