As One Possible COVID-19 Treatment Gets a Closer Look, Another Prompts Safety Concerns
While the world hopes for a “magic bullet” that will put COVID-19 down, or at least prevent it, researchers remain committed to exploring all available options. Most recently, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir for the treatment of suspected or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 in adults and children hospitalized with severe disease. Acknowledging that information is limited about its safety and effectiveness at this point, the FDA reported that remdesivir was shown in a clinical trial to shorten the time to recovery in some patients. Conversely, another drug that at one time was thought to hold some promise (hydroxychloroquine) has been found to increase the risk for QT interval abnormalities. Two studies published in JAMA Cardiology revealed that patients who received hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 appear to be at high risk of corrected QTc prolongation, while concurrent treatment with azithromycin was associated with greater changes in QTc. Some patients in one of the trials had to discontinue hydroxychloroquine treatment due to potential adverse drug events, including intractable nausea, hypoglycemia, and a single case of torsades de pointes. The majority of subjects in the other test (93%) showed an increase in QTc, defined as an increase in QTc intervals of >60 milliseconds vs baseline or as a QTC of ≥500 milliseconds after the administration of therapy.