SOLIDARITY clinical trial for Covid-19 drugs: All fail to show benefits

[sesquiterpene]

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.15.20209817v1.full.pdf
Interim results from the study show Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir and Interferon all ineffective. From the study:

CONCLUSIONS
These Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir and Interferon regimens appeared to have little or no effect onhospitalized 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.

This leaves dexamethasone as the only drug showing success. Rather disappointing, I hope for some positive results for the monoclonal antibodies currently undergoing testing. More commentary here:
The SOLIDARITY Data

 

[Strathos]

What about that thing they gave Trump? The one supposedly made with aborted fetal cells?

 

[sesquiterpene]

What about that thing they gave Trump? The one supposedly made with aborted fetal cells?

They gave Trump one of the monoclonal antibodies (there are several in development). No aborted fetuses involved, as far as I can tell.

 

[Brightmoon]

​

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.15.20209817v1.full.pdf
Interim results from the study show Remdesivir, Hydroxychloroquine, Lopinavir and Interferon all ineffective. From the study: This leaves dexamethasone as the only drug showing success. Rather disappointing, I hope for some positive results for the monoclonal antibodies currently undergoing testing. More commentary here:
The SOLIDARITY Data

A little disappointing, although not particularly surprising. So far, if the studies Dr. John Campbell has described hold up, the most effective precautionary measures, apart from masks, hand washing, and social distancing, seem to be ensuring good blood levels of vitamin D and zinc. Being so cheap as to be effectively unprofitable, they haven't been pushed by Big Pharma, but it would be nice to see governments & health agencies taking action.

[Apparently Trump is getting zinc supplementation...]

 

[sesquiterpene]

A little disappointing, although not particularly surprising. So far, if the studies Dr. John Campbell has described hold up, the most effective precautionary measures, apart from masks, hand washing, and social distancing, seem to be ensuring good blood levels of vitamin D and zinc. Being so cheap as to be effectively unprofitable, they haven't been pushed by Big Pharma, but it would be nice to see governments & health agencies taking action.

[Apparently Trump is getting zinc supplementation...]

There are a few trials with vitamin D, but only two of these are listed as recruiting. Can you list some clinical evidence that vitamin D is effective?
Search of: vitamin d | Covid19 - List Results - ClinicalTrials.gov

 

[Hazelelponi]

There are a few trials with vitamin D, but only two of these are listed as recruiting. Can you list some clinical evidence that vitamin D is effective?
Search of: vitamin d | Covid19 - List Results - ClinicalTrials.gov

None that I know of say that its effective for treatment after the fact, but just the fact that 100% of all COVID-19 ICU patients and 100% of all mortalities that were examined in one study just happened to be vitamin D deficient is enough of a correlation to say there's something to vitamin D and it's role in fighting COVID-19 that in this environment we should be making sure we aren't ourselves deficient. (Can be found out via a blood test ordered by a physician).

Also when you look at the most affected populations, like the black American community for instance, are statistically more likely to be vitamin D deficient and also a community that is hardest hit by this disease.

I'd love to see more real studies done, but there is certainly a correlation there between deficiency and a worse outcome with COVID.

 

[Hank77]

What about that thing they gave Trump? The one supposedly made with aborted fetal cells?

I think you are thinking of some vaccines.

 

[Hank77]

They gave Trump one of the monoclonal antibodies (there are several in development). No aborted fetuses involved, as far as I can tell.

Regeneron's monoclonal antibody — On Oct. 2, the White House released a letter saying the president received a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron's monoclonal antibody cocktail, called REGN-COV2, the highest dose of the drug being tested in late-stage clinical trials, according to Politico.

Regeneron said in a Sept. 29 news release that a high dose of the drug caused the level of the virus to decrease in patients in an early clinical trial, indicating it may help COVID-19 patients recover faster. The trial seemed to show the drug had a bigger effect on patients who were infected with the virus but hadn't created high levels of their own antibodies against the virus. The drug uses synthetic versions of the antibodies patients' bodies create when they recover from a disease. In July, Regeneron received $450 million from Operation Warp Speed, the White House's task force to expedite COVID-19 vaccine development, to manufacture thousands of doses of the drug.

Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer, MD, PhD, told The New York Times that President Trump's medical staff reached out to the company for permission to use the drug, and that it was cleared with the FDA. Mr. Schleifer has known the president casually for many years and is a member of his golf club in Westchester County, N.Y., according to the Times.
8 drugs Trump has been given for his COVID-19 treatment: Since President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 Oct. 1, he has been given a variety of drugs intended to shorten his recovery time and ease symptoms. 

 

[Hazelelponi]

Nevermind, probably off topic.

 

[Gene2memE]

Regeneron uses a cell line taken from fetal stem cell tissue from an abortion that took place in 1973 (in the Netherlands, i believe).

So, indirectly, yes it does.

It was a particularly enjoyable bout of schadenfreud on Twitter, watching parts of the QAnon sphere disappear up their own fundaments trying to justify it.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

There are a few trials with vitamin D, but only two of these are listed as recruiting. Can you list some clinical evidence that vitamin D is effective?
Search of: vitamin d | Covid19 - List Results - ClinicalTrials.gov

The relevant studies and papers are posted below Dr Campbell's videos concerning vitamin D. Here is the the most recent on Vitamin D:

Vitamin D News & Science - this one has links to the previous Vitamin D videos as well as the studies referred to in this video.

​

Here's the one on zinc: Covid-19 and Zinc - and his links:
President Trump taking zinc (WSJ)
Low zinc levels at clinical admission associates with poor outcomes in COVID-19
COVID-19: Poor outcomes in patients with zinc deficiency (International Journal of Infectious Diseases, November 2020)
What zinc does

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Regeneron's monoclonal antibody — On Oct. 2, the White House released a letter saying the president received a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron's monoclonal antibody cocktail, called REGN-COV2, the highest dose of the drug being tested in late-stage clinical trials, according to Politico.

Regeneron said in a Sept. 29 news release that a high dose of the drug caused the level of the virus to decrease in patients in an early clinical trial, indicating it may help COVID-19 patients recover faster. The trial seemed to show the drug had a bigger effect on patients who were infected with the virus but hadn't created high levels of their own antibodies against the virus. The drug uses synthetic versions of the antibodies patients' bodies create when they recover from a disease. In July, Regeneron received $450 million from Operation Warp Speed, the White House's task force to expedite COVID-19 vaccine development, to manufacture thousands of doses of the drug.

Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer, MD, PhD, told The New York Times that President Trump's medical staff reached out to the company for permission to use the drug, and that it was cleared with the FDA. Mr. Schleifer has known the president casually for many years and is a member of his golf club in Westchester County, N.Y., according to the Times.
8 drugs Trump has been given for his COVID-19 treatment: Since President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 Oct. 1, he has been given a variety of drugs intended to shorten his recovery time and ease symptoms.

There's been some speculation that giving Trump synthetic antibodies may mean he won't now have the level of immunity he would have had if he'd had to make more of his own antibodies - especially as the steroid he was given suppresses part of the immune response...

 

[sesquiterpene]

Regeneron uses a cell line taken from fetal stem cell tissue from an abortion that took place in 1973 (in the Netherlands, i believe).

So, indirectly, yes it does.

It was a particularly enjoyable bout of schadenfreud on Twitter, watching parts of the QAnon sphere disappear up their own fundaments trying to justify it.

From Fact check: Trump's antibody therapy not made from fetal stem cells

In supplementary material to a paper published in June in the journal Science, HEK293T cells – an immortalized epithelial cell line (cells not normally immortal but altered to be so via spontaneous mutation or in the lab) derived from embryonic kidney cells obtained in 1972 – were described as "briefly" used to create SARS-CoV-2-like viral particles to test mouse and human-derived antibodies against.

Indirect indeed. Their antibodies were tested in an assay where one of the reagents was produced by a cell line (not stem cells) derived from a fetus. That's quite a few degrees of separation there. Would you condemn any drug that has ever been tested in an assay that uses a fetal cell line?
No fetal stem cell lines were used in the production of this drug.

 

[sesquiterpene]

Also when you look at the most affected populations, like the black American community for instance, are statistically more likely to be vitamin D deficient and also a community that is hardest hit by this disease.

I'd love to see more real studies done, but there is certainly a correlation there between deficiency and a worse outcome with COVID.

I suspect there are a metric ton of confounding factors in regards to vitamin D deficiency. That's why randomized, controlled studies are needed.
The history of medicine is replete with failed hypotheses regarding treatment of disease X with nutrient/vitamin Y. I'm pretty cynical in regards to this sort of thing.

 

[sesquiterpene]

The relevant studies and papers are posted below Dr Campbell's videos concerning vitamin D. Here is the the most recent on Vitamin D:

Vitamin D News & Science - this one has links to the previous Vitamin D videos as well as the studies referred to in this video.

Sorry, I'm no more likely to go down a YouTube rabbit hole concerning Covid-19 treatments than I am to go down a YouTube rabbit hole concerning creationist arguments. What were you thinking?

 

[Hazelelponi]

I suspect there are a metric ton of confounding factors in regards to vitamin D deficiency. That's why randomized, controlled studies are needed.
The history of medicine is replete with failed hypotheses regarding treatment of disease X with nutrient/vitamin Y. I'm pretty cynical in regards to this sort of thing.

I don't think it to be a treatment, and agree with you that correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation, but it's definitely interesting enough that in all the case studies they were able to examine, that while only 50% of hospitalized COVID patients had the deficiency, 100% of ICU patients and 100% of the mortalities caused by COVID had the vitamin D deficiency.

It's enough of a correlation to realize that perhaps in the midst of a pandemic we should pay more attention to whether we are deficient and seek to improve that situation if we are, as being healthy and having fewer such deficiencies when we become infected may affect outcome...

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Sorry, I'm no more likely to go down a YouTube rabbit hole concerning Covid-19 treatments than I am to go down a YouTube rabbit hole concerning creationist arguments. What were you thinking?

You don't have to watch the videos - the links are all in the description text below them.

 

[Strathos]

Regeneron uses a cell line taken from fetal stem cell tissue from an abortion that took place in 1973 (in the Netherlands, i believe).

So, indirectly, yes it does.

It was a particularly enjoyable bout of schadenfreud on Twitter, watching parts of the QAnon sphere disappear up their own fundaments trying to justify it.

But does it work?

 

[sesquiterpene]

But does it work?

The results I've seen so far have been preliminary, both for Regeneron's and Eli Lilly's antibodies. They have demonstrated a reduction in viral load but have not shown direct benefit in severity of the disease or number of fatalities. We'll have to wait, but I do have high hopes for them.