"'Trump Bokyong' Hydroxychloroquine Deemed Dangerous, Paper Retracted Due to Data Reliability Issues"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunjin Jeong] The papers claiming that hydroxychloroquine, a malaria treatment drug that U.S. President Donald Trump has stated he is taking, increases the risk of death in patients with the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) have been retracted. After these papers were published, the use of hydroxychloroquine was discontinued, but the authors decided to retract them due to concerns over the reliability of the data used in the studies.

According to CNN and others on the 4th (local time), the hydroxychloroquine-related papers published in the journals The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) on the 22nd of last month were retracted at the authors' request. The authors of both papers explained that there were issues with the reliability of data from the U.S. medical data company 'Surgisphere.' The review process was halted because the company did not provide the full dataset to the peer reviewers who were examining the completeness of the papers.

The authors stated that Surgisphere conveyed their position that they did not send the data because they judged it could violate confidentiality obligations with their clients. Previously, Surgisphere had stated that the data used in the research was created by receiving de-identified data from hospitals.

The paper published in The Lancet on the 22nd of last month reported that prescribing hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine to patients hospitalized with COVID-19 increased the risk of death. The NEJM paper reported that drugs used to treat heart disease, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, do not increase the risk of death in COVID-19 patients.

The Lancet issued a statement saying, "The scientific integrity of the papers is a very serious issue, and there were significant questions about Surgisphere and the data from that company used in the papers," adding, "Institutional review regarding Surgisphere's research collaboration is necessary."

However, CNN also reported that other studies exist which show that hydroxychloroquine is ineffective and causes side effects.