A pill containing two HIV drugs that was touted as a potential treatment for the novel coronavirus was not effective, according to a study released late on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A test in Chinese patients with severe COVID-19 disease found the 99 who received AbbVie Inc.'s Kaletra, a combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, fared no better than the 100 who received standard care.
People who received the combination showed small gains in the time to clinical improvement and mortality at 28 days, but the differences were not statistically significant. People on the drugs showed clinical improvement after a median of 15 days compared to 16 days with standard care, a difference the researchers characterized as "significant, albeit modest."