There are currently no specific treatments for COVID-19. However, it is possible that some existing drugs, usually used for other conditions, may have some benefits.

One of the authors said the initial trial investigated whether anti-viral drugs used to treat HIV would relieve the symptoms of COVID-19 - and started when there were less than 500 confirmed cases worldwide.

The trial saw 199 COVID-19 patients at Jin Yin-Tan Hospital treated either using standard of care or being given lopinavir-ritonavir. The results were published recently and showed enough promise that further, larger trials of the lopinavir-ritonavir treatment have now been established.

Mortality at 28 days was similar in the lopinavir–ritonavir group and the standard-care group (19.2% vs. 25.0%; difference, −5.8 percentage points; 95% CI, −17.3 to 5.7). The percentages of patients with detectable viral RNA at various time points were similar.

In a modified intention-to-treat analysis, lopinavir–ritonavir led to a median time to clinical improvement that was shorter by 1 day than that observed with standard care (hazard ratio, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.91). Gastrointestinal adverse events were more common in the lopinavir–ritonavir group, but serious adverse events were more common in the standard-care group. Lopinavir–ritonavir treatment was stopped early in 13 patients (13.8%) because of adverse events.

In hospitalized adult patients with severe Covid-19, no benefit was observed with lopinavir–ritonavir treatment beyond standard care. Future trials in patients with severe illness may help to confirm or exclude the possibility of a treatment benefit.

The findings from this study will also be considered as part of the forthcoming Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY (RECOVERY) trial. This will provide a trial platform to evaluate some of the approximately 30 treatments which are currently believed to have potential for treatment of COVID-19.

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/lancaster-university-academic-sees-positive-signs-from-first-published-clinical-trial-for-treatment-of-covid-19-1

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2001282

http://sciencemission.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=publications%2Fa-trial-of-lopinavir&filter=22