Researchers withdraw study flagging hydroxychloroquine risks in COVID-19 treatment

The authors of a study that raised medical concerns over the use of Hydroxychloroquine for treating Coronavirus withdrew their research on Thursday, blaming a company that provided the data.

The study, published in the Lancet journal of medicine, had claimed to have analysed around 96,000 patient records, finding that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, common anti-malarial drugs, were ineffective in treating COVID-19 and even increased the risk of patient’s death. It also flagged Heart arrhythmia as a particular concern.

These finding on Hydroxychloroquine - favoured by President Donald Trump, led the World Health Organisation to temporarily suspend clinical trials into the medicines. But the paper soon raised widespread concern among scientists over a lack of information about the hospitals around the world that contributed data.

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Mandeep Mehra, a professor at Harvard University who led the work, along with Frank Ruschitzka of the University Hospital Zurich and Amit Patel of the University of Utah, said they had tried to conduct a third-party review. However, Surgisphere, a small healthcare analytics firm based in Chicago that provided the data, refused to cooperate.

The Lancet journal offered its own statement, saying there are many outstanding questions about Surgisphere and the data included in the study. Despite the other findings verifying the safety of hydroxychloroquine, there is still no proof from a randomised clinical trial (RCT) that the medicine works against COVID-19.

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Research scandal

The research scandal undermines confidence in the world's leading medical journals amid a pandemic. After The Lancet published the study, highlighting numerous red flags, researchers began to scrutinise the information provided by Surgisphere.

An international media outlet had revealed that the Chicago-based firm had a scant presence on the internet, and only a handful of its staff were listed on LinkedIn including a science fiction author and a model. The firm was involved in yet another eye-catchy study which found that HCL could be useful against COVID-19, as per reports.

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