Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

February 24, 2021

Effect of a Genetically Engineered Interferon-Alpha versus Traditional Interferon-Alpha in the Treatment of Moderate-to-Severe COVID-19: A Randomised Clinical Trial

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A randomized clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of a modified “super-compound interferon” (rSIFN-co) to standard of care in China (which includes treatment with traditional interferon-alpha) indicated that rSIFN-co was associated with a shorter time to clinical improvement. Patients were blinded to treatment arm and received the standard of care, which also included lopinavir-ritonavir or umifenovir but the treating clinicians were aware of study assignment. Only 10% of participants received corticosteroids. Clinical improvement was defined as two-points improvement on the WHO scale. In this cohort, the time to clinical improvement in the rSIFN-co group compared to interferon-alpha was 11.5 days versus 14.0 days, the overall rate of clinical improvement on day 28 was 93.5% versus 77.1%, and the time to virus nucleic acid negative conversion was 7.0 days versus 10.0 days. Adverse events were balanced with no deaths among either group.

Li et al. (Jan 1, 2021). Effect of a Genetically Engineered Interferon-Alpha versus Traditional Interferon-Alpha in the Treatment of Moderate-to-Severe COVID-19: A Randomised Clinical Trial. Annals of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2021.1890329