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Scientists found no improvement in the recovery or death rate of patients given the drug combo.
Disappointing results were announced this week for a COVID-19 study involving the HIV drugs lopinavir and ritonavir.
As part of this summer's RECOVERY trial in the United Kingom, hospitalized coronavirus patients were given a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, which is sold as Kaletra. But the treatment showed no benefit in lowering mortality among COVID patients, scientists at Oxford University announced. The findings showed that 23 percent of COVID patients given the HIV combo drug died within 28 days, while 22 percent not receiving the treatment died within the same time frame.
Kaletra also had no effect on how long COVID patients remained hospitalized or whether they needed a ventilator to breathe.
"Results from this trial show that it is not an effective treatment for patients admitted to hospital with COVID–19," Oxford professor Martin Landray, who co-leads the RECOVERY trial, said, according to Yahoo News.
The RECOVERY trial has included over 13,000 patients. One of the positive findings from the trial involved the steiroid dexamethasone for COVID patients — this treatment was recently used on President Trump.
