Studies retracted: Two studies in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet have been retracted because they relied on a Surgisphere database, which has come under scrutiny. The NEJM study examined the relationship between hypertension drugs and mortality in COVID-19 patients, while the Lancet study looked at whether hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine were effective COVID-19 treatments. Three of the authors of the Lancet article say that Surgisphere declined to transfer the full dataset and other material to a team of independent reviewers.

Retraction—Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis

Published:June 05, 2020DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31324-6

several concerns were raised with respect to the veracity of the data and analyses conducted by Surgisphere Corporation and its founder and our co-author, Sapan Desai, in our publication. We launched an independent third-party peer review of Surgisphere with the consent of Sapan Desai to evaluate the origination of the database elements, to confirm the completeness of the database, and to replicate the analyses presented in the paper.

Our independent peer reviewers informed us that Surgisphere would not transfer the full dataset, client contracts, and the full ISO audit report to their servers for analysis as such transfer would violate client agreements and confidentiality requirements. As such, our reviewers were not able to conduct an independent and private peer review and therefore notified us of their withdrawal from the peer-review process.

We always aspire to perform our research in accordance with the highest ethical and professional guidelines. We can never forget the responsibility we have as researchers to scrupulously ensure that we rely on data sources that adhere to our high standards. Based on this development, we can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources. Due to this unfortunate development, the authors request that the paper be retracted.

We all entered this collaboration to contribute in good faith and at a time of great need during the COVID-19 pandemic. We deeply apologise to you, the editors, and the journal readership for any embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused.

MRM reports personal fees from Abbott, Medtronic, Janssen, Roivant, Triple Gene, Mesoblast, Baim Institute for Clinical Research, Portola, Bayer, NupulseCV, FineHeart, and Leviticus. FR has been paid for time spent as a committee member for clinical trials, advisory boards, other forms of consulting, and lectures or presentations; these payments were made directly to the University of Zurich and no personal payments were received in relation to these trials or other activities since 2018. Before 2018 FR reports grants and personal fees from SJM/Abbott, grants and personal fees from Servier, personal fees from Zoll, personal fees from Astra Zeneca, personal fees from Sanofi, grants and personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from Amgen, personal fees from BMS, personal fees from Pfizer, personal fees from Fresenius, personal fees from Vifor, personal fees from Roche, grants and personal fees from Bayer, personal fees from Cardiorentis, personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, other from Heartware, and grants from Mars. ANP declares no competing interests.

Reference

1.
- Mehra MR
- Desai SS
- Ruschitzka F
- Patel AN
Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis.

Lancet. 2020; (published online May 22.)

10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31180-6
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This is the article that the New England Journal of Medicine retracted.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2007621

So the articles were retracted due to the inability to verify the data by third party reviewers. What are we to make of this? There is still no good evidence of the benefit of treating patients with Covid-19 with hydroxychloroquine. There is no recommendation to take it outside of a clinical trial of which there a number that are still ongoing. The WHO recently announced that is has resumed it’s clinical trial which it had paused based on the concerns raised by The Lancet article.

Here is a link to the most recent update on drug trials for Covid-19.

https://www.epocrates.com/e/guideline/03_19+

The Latest News on Chloroquine

Retraction—Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis

Reference

This is the article that the New England Journal of Medicine retracted.

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