In a paper on the interim findings on the four drugs, WHO's Solidarity trial researchers in 30 countries return a clear negative.

The multi-country Solidarity trial anchored by the World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that none of the four repurposed drugs that it examined — remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), lopinavir and interferon — have any benefits on the patients of Covid-19.

The interim findings of the four original drugs have now been reported in a pre-print paper — HCQ and lopinavir were dropped from the trial after the first few months.

What did the WHO study find?

The trial began in March. In 405 hospitals in 30 countries, 11,266 adults were randomised, with 2,750 allocated remdesivir, 954 HCQ, 1,411 lopinavir, 651 interferon plus lopinavir, 1,412 only interferon, and 4,088 no study drug.

“These Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir and Interferon regimens appeared to have little or no effect on hospitalized COVID-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation and duration of hospital stay. The mortality findings contain most of the randomized evidence on Remdesivir and Interferon, and are consistent with meta-analyses of mortality in all major trials,” researchers from the Solidarity trial reported in the pre-print paper on Medrxiv.

Remdesivir received an emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May for severe COVID-19 patients that was later expanded to include all patients.

But the Solidarity trial suggests the drug does little in severe cases. Of 2743 hospitalized patients who received the drug, 11% died, versus 11.2% in a control group of roughly the same size. The difference is so small it could have arisen by chance.

Source:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.15.20209817v1

https://nypost.com/2020/10/16/remdesivir-has-little-effect-on-covid-19-survival-who-says/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-54566730

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/remdesivir-and-interferon-fall-flat-who-s-megastudy-covid-19-treatments?fbclid=IwAR3c1JLyEEPu8zbqxrzFxRS7ok6RcN743C--BUOTrI_m2bQ_07gN4DeMz_8