Baricitinib in Symptomatic Patients Infected by COVID-19: an Open-label, Pilot Study.

Pharmacological Action Clinical Trial

— BARI-COVID  

Official title:

Baricitinib Combined With Antiviral Therapy in Symptomatic Patients Infected by COVID-19: an Open-label, Pilot Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04320277
• Other study ID #: HPrato-3
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: Phase 2/Phase 3
• Start date: May 16, 2020
• Est. completion date: July 30, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: April 2020
• Source: Hospital of Prato
• Contact: Fabrizio Cantini, MD
• Phone: +393408075607
• Email: fbrzcantini[@]gmail.com
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

There is no specific antiviral treatment recommended for COVID-19, and no vaccine is currently available. Baricitinib, an anti-Janus kinase inhibitor (anti-JAK) acting against JAK1 and JAK2. The drug was found capable to reduce or interrupt the passage of the virus into target cells, and to inhibit the JAK1- and JAK2-mediated cytokine release. The drug was licensed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis at the daily dose of 4 mg/orally, with excellent results in terms of clinical response and a good safety profile. Since baricitinib does not interact with antivirals due to its prevalent renal elimination, it may be used in combination.The evidence on the advantageous action of baricitinib on viral entry and cytokine outbreak constituted the rationale to perform a trial on patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infection receiving baricitinib combined with antiviral therapy.

Description:

Study design. Interventional, open-label, 2-week, prospective trial of a cohort of patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infection.

Objectives. Primary. To assess the efficacy of baricitinib combined with antiviral therapy in patients with COVID-19-related mild and moderate disease in terms of reduction of the percentage of subjects requiring ICU admission.

Secondary objectives. To describe the clinical findings in a cohort of symptomatic COVID-19-infected subjects; to investigate the role of CRP, IL-6, and TNFα levels as predictor of progression to ARDS; to assess the type and incidence of adverse events (AEs).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 200
• Est. completion date: July 30, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: June 30, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 85 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• All consecutive patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infection

• Age >18 years,

• Clinical diagnosis of COVID19 infection

• Patients should present fever, cough and myalgia and weakness and radiological findings of pneumonia.

• All patients should be willing and able to provide written informed consent prior to performing study procedures.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Age less than 18

• History of thrombophlebitis.

• Patient with latent tuberculosis infection (Quantiferon test).

• Pregnancy and lactation.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Pharmacological Action

Intervention

Drug:
• Baricitinib
Baricitinib 4 mg/day/orally combined to antiviral therapy ritonavir for 2 weeks. Baricitinib tablets 4 mg were administered in the morning.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Italy	Fabrizio Cantini	Prato	Tuscany

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Hospital of Prato

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Italy, 

References & Publications (8)

Bechman K, Subesinghe S, Norton S, Atzeni F, Galli M, Cope AP, Winthrop KL, Galloway JB. A systematic review and meta-analysis of infection risk with small molecule JAK inhibitors in rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2019 Oct 1;58(10):1755-1766. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kez087. — View Citation

Cao B, Wang Y, Wen D, Liu W, Wang J, Fan G, Ruan L, Song B, Cai Y, Wei M, Li X, Xia J, Chen N, Xiang J, Yu T, Bai T, Xie X, Zhang L, Li C, Yuan Y, Chen H, Li H, Huang H, Tu S, Gong F, Liu Y, Wei Y, Dong C, Zhou F, Gu X, Xu J, Liu Z, Zhang Y, Li H, Shang L, Wang K, Li K, Zhou X, Dong X, Qu Z, Lu S, Hu X, Ruan S, Luo S, Wu J, Peng L, Cheng F, Pan L, Zou J, Jia C, Wang J, Liu X, Wang S, Wu X, Ge Q, He J, Zhan H, Qiu F, Guo L, Huang C, Jaki T, Hayden FG, Horby PW, Zhang D, Wang C. A Trial of Lopinavir-Ritonavir in Adults Hospitalized with Severe Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020 Mar 18. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001282. [Epub ahead of print] — View Citation

Channappanavar R, Perlman S. Pathogenic human coronavirus infections: causes and consequences of cytokine storm and immunopathology. Semin Immunopathol. 2017 Jul;39(5):529-539. doi: 10.1007/s00281-017-0629-x. Epub 2017 May 2. Review. — View Citation

Huang C, Wang Y, Li X, Ren L, Zhao J, Hu Y, Zhang L, Fan G, Xu J, Gu X, Cheng Z, Yu T, Xia J, Wei Y, Wu W, Xie X, Yin W, Li H, Liu M, Xiao Y, Gao H, Guo L, Xie J, Wang G, Jiang R, Gao Z, Jin Q, Wang J, Cao B. Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. Lancet. 2020 Feb 15;395(10223):497-506. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30183-5. Epub 2020 Jan 24. Erratum in: Lancet. 2020 Jan 30;:. — View Citation

Richardson P, Griffin I, Tucker C, Smith D, Oechsle O, Phelan A, Stebbing J. Baricitinib as potential treatment for 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease. Lancet. 2020 Feb 15;395(10223):e30-e31. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30304-4. Epub 2020 Feb 4. — View Citation

Stebbing J, Phelan A, Griffin I, Tucker C, Oechsle O, Smith D, Richardson P. COVID-19: combining antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatments. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020 Apr;20(4):400-402. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30132-8. Epub 2020 Feb 27. — View Citation

Zhou F, Yu T, Du R, Fan G, Liu Y, Liu Z, Xiang J, Wang Y, Song B, Gu X, Guan L, Wei Y, Li H, Wu X, Xu J, Tu S, Zhang Y, Chen H, Cao B. Clinical course and risk factors for mortality of adult inpatients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet. 2020 Mar 28;395(10229):1054-1062. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30566-3. Epub 2020 Mar 11. Erratum in: Lancet. 2020 Mar 28;395(10229):1038. Lancet. 2020 Mar 28;395(10229):1038. — View Citation

Zhu N, Zhang D, Wang W, Li X, Yang B, Song J, Zhao X, Huang B, Shi W, Lu R, Niu P, Zhan F, Ma X, Wang D, Xu W, Wu G, Gao GF, Tan W; China Novel Coronavirus Investigating and Research Team. A Novel Coronavirus from Patients with Pneumonia in China, 2019. N Engl J Med. 2020 Feb 20;382(8):727-733. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2001017. Epub 2020 Jan 24. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	The percentage of patients requiring transfer to ICU as compared with the rate of transfers observed in controls.	The percentage of ICU admission in patients and controls will be compared for statistical difference	2 weeks
Secondary	The percentage of patients achieving the remission; CRP, IL-6 and TNFa values at baseline and during the treatment course; the number of AEs.	CRP values will be evaluated for prediction of disease worsening.	2 weeks