Phase 2 study: Triple-drug COVID-19 therapy better than 2-drug regimenA phase 2 trial has shown that a 2-week course of triple antiviral therapy with interferon beta-1b plus lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin is safe and better at shortening COVID-19 viral shedding than lopinavir-ritonavir alone in patients with mild to moderate illness if started within 7 days of symptom onset.The prospective study, published late last week in The Lancet, involved 127 adult COVID-19 patients (mean age, 52 years) admitted to six Hong Kong hospitals from Feb 10 to Mar 20.
Eighty-six patients were randomly assigned to receive 2 weeks of the triple-drug combination every 12 hours plus as many as three doses of injectable interferon beta-1b every other day,