Treatments administered to the first 9,152 reported cases of COVID19: a systematic review (preprint)

ABSTRACT

Background The emergence of SARS-CoV-2/2019 novel coronavirus (COVID19) has created a global pandemic with no approved treatments or vaccines. Repurposing existing drugs and rapidly launching clinical trials present the greatest near-term opportunities for mitigating COVID19s impact. Many treatments have already been administered to COVID19 patients but have not been systematically evaluated. We performed a systematic literature review to identify and assess all treatments reported to be administered to COVID19 patients. Methods We searched PubMed, BioRxiv, MedRxiv, and ChinaXiv for articles reporting treatments for COVID19 patients published between Dec 1, 2019 and Mar 27, 2020. All studies reporting treatments were included. Data for each paper were manually extracted by two independent extractors. Outcomes included the duration from drug administration to clinically-meaningful response (complete symptom resolution or hospital discharge). Data were analysed descriptively. Results We identified 2,706 articles from single patient case reports to single-centre interventional studies. Of these, 155 studies met inclusion criteria, comprising 9,152 patients from 14 different countries. The cohort was 45.4% female and 98.3% hospitalised, and mean (SD) age was 44.4 years (SD 21.0). The most frequently administered drug classes were antivirals, antibiotics, and corticosteroids, and of the 115 reported drugs, the most frequently administered was combination lopinavir/ritonavir, which was associated with a response time of 11.7 (1.09) days. Discussion A large number of treatments have been administered to the first 9,152 reported cases of COVID19. Further work is needed to prioritise drugs for investigation in well-controlled clinical trials and treatment protocols. Funding None.