AUTHOR=Fang Jie , Li Hui , Du Wei , Yu Ping , Guan Ying-Yun , Ma Shi-Yu , Liu Dong , Chen Wei , Shi Guo-Chao , Bian Xiao-Lan 

TITLE=Efficacy of Early Combination Therapy With Lianhuaqingwen and Arbidol in Moderate and Severe COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.560209

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2020.560209

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=Objective: Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan City, China, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. However, no special therapeutic drugs have been found for COVID-19 until now. The aim of this study was to search for effective drugs for COVID-19 treatment.
Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study with a total of 162 adult inpatients (≥18 years old) from Ruijin Hospital (Shanghai, China) and Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China) between Jan 27, 2020 and Mar 10, 2020. The enrolled COVID-19 patients were first divided into the LHQW monotherapy group and the LHQW+ arbidol combined therapy group. Then, these two groups were further classified into moderate and severe groups according to their COVID-19 clinical classification.
Results: The early combined usage of Lianhuaqingwen (LHQW) and arbidol can significantly accelerate the recovery course of patients with moderate COVID-19 by reducing the time of nucleic acid negative conversion, the time of chest CT improvement and the length of hospital stay. However, in patients with severe COVID-19, no benefit was observed in patients treated with LHQW+ arbidol combined treatment. In this study, both arbidol and LHQW were well tolerated without serious drug-associated adverse events.
Conclusion: The early combined usage of LHQW and arbidol may accelerate the recovery course and improve the prognosis of patients with moderate COVID-19.