Interferon Doesn’t Improve Outcomes for Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19

Interferon beta-1a plus Gilead Sciences’ antiviral remdesivir failed to improve upon remdesivir alone in treating hospitalized adults with COVID-19-related pneumonia in a 969-person study conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The NIH study, the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial 3 (ACTT3), ran from Aug. 5, 2020, to Dec. 21, 2020, but the full findings weren’t published until this week in The Lancet.

For the cohort of participants needing high-flow oxygen, interferon beta-1a alone was also associated with more serious side effects, specifically, worsening respiratory responses, NIH said.

Interferon beta-1a, an immunomodulator produced by Merck KGaA, is approved in the U.S. and more than 90 countries for treatment of multiple sclerosis.