Favipiravir for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia; a propensity score-matched cohort study

Abstract

We retrospectively investigated the clinical outcomes of favipiravir in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. Patients who between 23 May 2020 and 18 July 2020 received ≥ 24 h of favipiravir were assigned to the favipiravir group, while those who did not formed the non-favipiravir group. The primary outcome was 28-day clinical improvement, defined as two-category improvement from baseline on an 8-point ordinal scale. Propensity scores (PS) for favipiravir therapy were used for 1:1 matching. The unmatched cohort included 1493 patients, of which 51.7% were in the favipiravir group, and 48.3% were not receiving supplemental oxygen at baseline. Significant baseline differences between the two unmatched groups existed, but not between the PS-matched groups (N = 774). After PS-matching, there were no significant differences between the two groups in the proportion with 28-day clinical improvement (93.3% versus 92.8%, P 0.780), or 28-day all-cause mortality (2.1% versus 3.1%, P 0.360). Favipiravir was associated with more viral clearance by day 28 (79.8% versus 64.1%, P < 0.001). Adverse events were common in both groups, but the 93.9% were Grades 1-3. Favipiravir therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia is well tolerated but is not associated with an increased likelihood of clinical improvement or reduced all-cause mortality by 28 days.

Related Papers

• → Favipiravir (T-705), a broad spectrum inhibitor of viral RNA polymerase(2017)1,075 cited
• → Favipiravir and COVID-19: A Simplified Summary(2020)99 cited
• → Antiviral susceptibility of influenza viruses isolated from patients pre- and post-administration of favipiravir(2016)70 cited
• → FAVIPIRAVIR AS A POTENTIAL DRUG IN THE TREATMENT OF COVID-19(2020)6 cited
• → Favipiravir: Promising Therapy for COVID-19(2020)