Lancet retracts study on use of anti-malarial drug for Covid-19 treatment

The lancet a renowned medical journal has retracted a study that sparked conversations and raised concerns on the safety of the experimental chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine that were being used for experimental Covid-19 treatments after scrutiny of the data underlying the paper.

According to Lancet, the publication analysis and data was conducted by Surgisphere Corporation and Sapan Desai Lancet's co-author.

“Our independent peer reviewers informed us that Surgisphere would not transfer the full dataset, client contracts, and the full ISO audit report to their servers for analysis as such transfer would violate client agreements and confidentiality requirements,” reads the statement.

The retraction came at the request of the authors of the study that was published on 22 May.

“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,” adds The Lancet.

The retraction comes at a time when the world is rushing to find a conclusive vaccine against Covid-19.

Last month, United States President Donald Trump championed for use of Hydroxychloroquine in treatment of Covid-19 patients but according to an article published by HealthWorld.com on 17 May, cardiac problems and increased risk of death for certain patients were brought about after use of the anti-malarial drug.

The study by Lancet had garnered much traction because the data showed more than observational studies that had previously found the drugs were not associated with improved outcomes for patients.

According to the retracted study the findings were based on patient data from 671 hospitals in six continents and it showed the drugs corresponded to higher mortality.

Leading to a stop in some global clinical trials studying hydroxychloroquine so that researchers could check for any safety concerns.

However, concerns were raised by outside experts after noticing inconsistencies in the data. They asked the company that compiled and analyzed the data, Surgisphere, to explain how it sourced its data.

“As such, our reviewers were not able to conduct an independent and private peer review and therefore notified us of their withdrawal from the peer-review process,” the researchers wrote.

Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration had warned the drugs should not be used in Covid-19 treatment outside a clinical trial or beyond hospitalized patients due to the risks it could cause on heart health.

The drugs are safe for people to take for malaria, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, for whom they are shown to have benefits, experts stress.