Each day brings its share of twists and turns in what is now commonly referred to as the ” LancetGate “. The last flip-flopping of WHO to be relayed by many media, who were quick to jump on the results against the HCQ in the study, published on may 22, is a perfect illustration. And one this evening announcing that The Lancet withdrew the study Mehra as portrayed.
The answers, in particular evasive, Dr. Mandeep R. Mehra, medical specialist in cardiovascular surgery and professor at Harvard Medical School, have not reassured, and were, on the contrary, fuelled doubts on the integrity of this retrospective study and its results.
We have already published the result of first investigations in several of our publications. However, the communicated information according to which Dr. Mehra had participated in early April at a conference sponsored by Gilead – producer of the Remdesivir, a drug in direct competition with the HCQ – called for further investigations.
It is important to keep in mind that Dr. Mandeep Mehra exercises at Brigham Hospital and Women’s Health (BWH°) of Boston.
The study published may 22 in The Lancet, based on the collection, processing and analysis of mégadonnées from medical records shared 96-032 patients will be enrolled in 671 hospitals around the world by the company Surgisphère, had been preceded by another study published 1 may in the New England Journal of Medicine.
This study, published on the 1st of may, with as main author, Dr Mehra, was also based on the collection, processing and analysis of mégadonnées from medical records shared 8 910 patients divided in 169 hospitals throughout the world, by the company Surgisphère.
Funding the study was Supported by the Chair of William Harvey of cardiovascular medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The development and maintenance of the collaborative database on the surgical results have been funded by Surgisphere “.
For more information on this company, and its President Dr. Sapan Desai, md, specialist in vascular surgery, we will refer you to our previous publications
The study published on the 1st of may was looking to “… assess the relationship between cardiovascular disease and pharmacotherapy with the in-hospital death in patients hospitalized with Covid-19 who were admitted between December 20, 2019 and march 15,… “.
The study, published on may 22 sought to assess the effectiveness or not of the chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, taken alone or in association with an antibiotic of the macrolide.
Therefore, it is important to note that in 3 weeks, 2 retrospective studies observational large-scale population-large – 96 032 and 8 910 patients across the world have been published in two journals by Dr. Mehra, Dr. Desai and other co-authors, and thanks to the base of mégadonnées of Surgisphère, a company of Dr. Desai.
The date of 22 may is she also of note, because on this day, the date of the publication in The Lancet of the study very charge against the HCQ, another study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine concerning the results of a clinical trial of the…remdesivir.
At the conclusion of this trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, ” The remdesivir was found to be superior to placebo in regard to the shortening of the time to recovery in adults hospitalized with Covid-19, and signs of lower respiratory tract infection “.
Accordingly, on the same day, may 22, a study ” went down ” the HCQ in a magazine when another showed a positive signal of recovery of certain patients, thanks to the remdesivir in another review.
For this study, it is to be noted that among the main co-authors – Elizabeth “Libby” Hohmann – represents one of the participating hospitals, the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, as is the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston where Dr. Mandeep Mehra.
By pushing the investigation, we discover that the first 3 clinical trials major remdesivir of Gilead have been made by these two hospitals :
“While COVID-19 continues to travel the world with scientists on his trail, the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) are conducting the search for an effective treatment.
“MGH has joined the National Institutes of Health have been described as the first clinical trial of a country of an experimental treatment for COVID-19, sponsored by the national Institute of allergy and infectious diseases, part of NIH. MGH is currently the only hospital in New England to participate in this trial, according to a list of sites shared by the hospital.”
“It is an enormous undertaking, with patients enrolled at up to 50 sites across the country, taking the remdesivir “.
“The test NIH, which can be adapted to assess other treatments, the aim is to determine if the medication relieves the breathing problems and other symptoms of COVID-19, helping the patients to leave the hospital earlier “.
As a reminder, the NIAID/NIH, is directed by Antony FAUCI, a staunch opponent of the HCQ.
“At Brigham ( BWH), two additional tests launched by Gilead, the developer of the drug, will help determine if it eases the symptoms in the disease patients with moderate to severe over the course of five and ten days. These tests will also be randomized, but not placebo-controlled, and will include 1 000 patients in sites across the world. These patients, noted Francisco Marty, MD, physician, Brigham and co-investigator of the study, are likely to be recruited… “
Accordingly, the first clinical trials major remdesivir launched on 20 march, the results of which are extremely important for Gilead, are directed by the MGH and BWH in Boston, precisely where operates Dr. Mehra is the principal author of the study against the HCQ may 22.
Dr. Marty of the BWH had foreseen the results two months later. Indeed, in recent days, several media US have echoed the announcements of Gilead achieved positive results on the remdesivir…results from clinical trials carried out in Boston :
“Encouraging results of a new study to be published Wednesday on the remdesivir for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.
Brigham and Dr. Francisco Marty worked on this study, and it says that the results show that there is no significant difference between the treatment of a patient with remdesivir for five days compared to 10 days “.
“Our understanding of the spectrum of the severity of the infection by SARS-CoV-2, and presentations of COVID-19 continues to evolve,” said Francisco Marty, MD, a medical doctor specializing in infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
“Gilead announces results from phase 3 of the remdesivir in patients with COVID-19 moderate “
– A study shows that the treatment of 5 days of the remdesivir resulted in a clinical improvement significantly more important compared to treatment with standard of care alone
– The data add to the body of evidence from earlier studies demonstrating the benets of remdesivir in hospitalized patients with COVID-19
These results announced by Gilead, a few days after the publication on 22 may of the study in the Lancet demolishing the HCQ study whose main author was Dr. Mehra, is probably again a coincidence.
Below are the sources that were used in writing this article :
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007621
May 1, 2020 – Mehra, Desai…- Publication New England Journal of Medicine – cardiovascular Diseases, drug therapy and mortality in Covid-19
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6/fulltext#%20
May 22, 2020 – Pubication The Lancet – Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for the treatment of Covid19, an analysis of the multi-national registry
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007764 –
May 22, 2020 – Publication New England Journal of Medicine – Remdesivir for the treatment of Covid-19 – preliminary Report
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/19/nation/trials-anticoronavirus-drug-launch-two-boston-hospitals/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link
‘Best Option That We Have’: Boston Hospitals Start Remdesivir Trials To Treat Coronavirus Patients
https://connectwithpartners.org/2020/04/02/at-the-center-of-a-search-for-covid-19-treatments-partners-hospitals
https://rally.partners.org/search?q=remdesivir
https://www.boston25news.com/news/health/new-study-shows-remedesvir-only-needed-5-days-be-effective-covid-19-patients/4RF6MCGHPJDHBPD6UHXS72GVUU/
Brigham and Women’s researchers publish results from new Remdesivir study
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200601005310/en/
https://hms.harvard.edu/about-hms/hms-affiliates
Author(s): Xavier Azalbert and Eric Gyssler for FranceSoir
