THE GUARDIAN – A controversial study that promoted hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a treatment for Covid-19 has officially been withdrawn.
On Tuesday, Elsevier, a Dutch academic publishing company which owns the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, issued the retraction of the March 2020 study, saying “concerns have been raised regarding this article, the substance of which relate to the articles’ adherence to Elsevier’s publishing ethics policies and the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants”.
An investigation by Elsevier’s research integrity and publishing ethics team, as well as the journal’s co-owner, the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, found multiple issues within the study, according to a lengthy retraction notice.
Among those include the journal being unable to confirm whether any of the patients involved in the study were acquired before ethical approval had been obtained.
The retraction notice also said that the journal has not been able to establish whether the subjects in this study should have provided informed consent to receive azithromycin as part of the study.
According to the original study, the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid would increase if used with azithromycin, an antibiotic. It went on to add that there is “reasonable cause to conclude that azithromycin was not considered standard care at the time of the study”.
Since the study’s publication, three of its authors have contacted the journal to express their concerns “regarding the presentation and interpretation of results” and stated that they “no longer wish to see their names associated with the article”.
Meanwhile, several other authors disagree with the retraction and dispute the grounds for it, the retraction notice said.
“This highly controversial study was the cornerstone of a global scandal. The promotion of its results led to the overprescription of hydroxychloroquine to millions of patients, resulting in unnecessary risk-taking for millions of people and potentially thousands of avoidable deaths … ”
