Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir and Nitazoxanide for Treatment of COVID-19

COVID Clinical Trial

Official title:

Efficacy of Adding Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir Combination, or Nitazoxanide to the Standard of Care in Treatment of COVID-19: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04498936
• Other study ID #: COVID-19 treatment
• Status: Completed
• Phase: Phase 4
• Start date: July 15, 2020
• Est. completion date: October 30, 2020

Study information

• Verified date: November 2020
• Source: Assiut University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The efficacy of treating COVID-19 infection by using Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir and Nitazoxanide will be examined. Included patients will be into 3 groups. The 1st group will receive Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir plus the standard care treatment (SCT). The 2nd group will take Nitazoxanide and SCT, while the 3rd group will receive only SCT. Then the clinical improvement and the rate of PCR change from positive to negative will be evaluated in each group.

Description:

This study is an open-label, randomized, controlled trial. A total of 240 patients who are recruited in 2 quarantine hospitals (15th of May hospital, Cairo, and Al Rajhi hospital, Assiut), will be randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio (80 patient in each treatment arm), to receive either the fixed combination of Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir (400 mg and 90 mg, orally) once daily for 14 days, plus the standard care treatment regimen (SCT) for COVID-19 patients according to the Egyptian Ministry of Health (MOH) protocol (Group 1), or nitazoxanide (500 mg, orally) four times per day for 14 days, plus STC (Group 2), or SCT alone (Group 3). All treatment groups will be followed up by laboratory investigations and PCR for SARS-CoV-2 virus at the time of enrollment, days 5, 8, 11, and 14. Supportive care comprised, as necessary, supplemental oxygen, noninvasive and invasive ventilation, antibiotic agents, vasopressor support, renal-replacement therapy, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). To ensure a balanced distribution of case severities in all study groups, randomization will be stratified based on the case severity index issued by WHO (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/clinical-management-of-novel-cov.pdf).

Written informed consent will be obtained from all patients or the patient's legal representative if the patient is too unwell to provide consent. The trial will be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the Good Clinical Practice guidelines of the International Conference on Harmonisation. The authors are responsible for designing the trial and for compiling and analyzing the data. The authors vouch for data completeness and accuracy and adherence to the trial protocol.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 240
• Est. completion date: October 30, 2020
• Est. primary completion date: October 30, 2020
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 12 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

This study is an open-label, randomized, controlled trial. A total of 216 patients who are recruited in 2 quarantine hospitals (15th of May hospital, Cairo, and Al Rajhi hospital, Assiut), will be randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio (72 patient in each treatment arm), to receive either the fixed combination of Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir (400 mg and 90 mg, orally) once daily for 14 days, plus the standard care treatment regimen (SCT) for COVID-19 patients according to the Egyptian Ministry of Health (MOH) protocol (Group 1), or nitazoxanide (500 mg, orally) four times per day for 14 days, plus STC (Group 2), or SCT alone (Group 3). All treatment groups will be followed up by laboratory investigations and PCR for SARS-CoV-2 virus at the time of enrollment, days 5, 8, 11, and 14. Supportive care comprised, as necessary, supplemental oxygen, noninvasive and invasive ventilation, antibiotic agents, vasopressor support, renal-replacement therapy, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). To ensure a balanced distribution of case severities in all study groups, randomization will be stratified based on the case severity index issued by WHO (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/clinical-management-of-novel-cov.pdf) .

Written informed consent will be obtained from all patients or the patient's legal representative if the patient is too unwell to provide consent. The trial will be conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the Good Clinical Practice guidelines of the International Conference on Harmonisation. The authors are responsible for designing the trial and for compiling and analyzing the data. The authors vouch for data completeness and accuracy and adherence to the trial protocol.

Inclusion Criteria:

• This study will include patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection and admitted to COVID-19 quarantine hospitals. Included patients should be > 12 years old, with creatinine clearance > 30 mL/ml, and without any malignancy. Patients with COVID-19 infection are classified clinically into mild, moderate, severe, and critical cases according to the management guide for COVID-19 published by the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population. Mild cases are defined as patients in whom clinical symptoms are mild, and no pneumonia manifestations can be found in imaging. Moderate cases are defined as patients having symptoms such as fever and respiratory tract symptoms, etc. and pneumonia manifestations can be seen in imaging. Severe cases are patients who meet any of the following criteria; (a) respiratory rate > 30 breaths/min, (b) oxygen saturations< 93% at a rest state, (c) arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2)/ Fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2)<300 mm Hg, or (d) patients with more than 50% lesions progression within 24 to 48 hours in lung imaging should be treated as severe cases. Finally, critical patients are those who are meeting any of the following criteria; (a) occurrence of respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation, or (b) the presence of shock; other organ failures that require monitoring and treatment in the ICU. All patients with an established diagnosis of COVID-19 in Egyptian quarantine hospitals at any clinical stage will be included in this study.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients < 12 years old.

• Pregnant females.

• Patients with renal impairment with creatinine clearance < 30 mL/min.

• Patients with malignancies particularly Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC).

• Patients using Favipiravir or Lopinavir-Ritonavir, as the co-administration of these drugs with Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir has not been studied.

• Patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis (Child-Pugh score B and C).

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• COVID

Intervention

Drug:
• Sofosbuvir and Ledipasvir
Evaluate the efficacy of Sofosbuvir/Ledipasvir in treatment of COVID-19
• Nitazoxanide
Evaluate the efficacy of Nitazoxanide in treatment of COVID-19

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Egypt	Assiut University Hospital	Assiut
Egypt	15th May Hospital	Helwan	Cairo

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Assiut University	Helwan University

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Egypt, 

References & Publications (20)

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Lam KK, Zheng X, Forestieri R, Balgi AD, Nodwell M, Vollett S, Anderson HJ, Andersen RJ, Av-Gay Y, Roberge M. Nitazoxanide stimulates autophagy and inhibits mTORC1 signaling and intracellular proliferation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. PLoS Pathog. 2012;8(5):e1002691. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002691. Epub 2012 May 10. — View Citation

Lim YS, Ahn SH, Lee KS, Paik SW, Lee YJ, Jeong SH, Kim JH, Yoon SK, Yim HJ, Tak WY, Han SY, Yang JC, Mo H, Garrison KL, Gao B, Knox SJ, Pang PS, Kim YJ, Byun KS, Kim YS, Heo J, Han KH. A phase IIIb study of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir fixed-dose combination tablet in treatment-naïve and treatment-experienced Korean patients chronically infected with genotype 1 hepatitis C virus. Hepatol Int. 2016 Nov;10(6):947-955. Epub 2016 May 20. — View Citation

Liu CJ, Chuang WL, Sheen IS, Wang HY, Chen CY, Tseng KC, Chang TT, Massetto B, Yang JC, Yun C, Knox SJ, Osinusi A, Camus G, Jiang D, Brainard DM, McHutchison JG, Hu TH, Hsu YC, Lo GH, Chu CJ, Chen JJ, Peng CY, Chien RN, Chen PJ. Efficacy of Ledipasvir and Sofosbuvir Treatment of HCV Infection in Patients Coinfected With HBV. Gastroenterology. 2018 Mar;154(4):989-997. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2017.11.011. Epub 2017 Nov 22. — View Citation

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Ueda Y, Ikegami T, Akamatsu N, Soyama A, Shinoda M, Goto R, Okajima H, Yoshizumi T, Taketomi A, Kitagawa Y, Eguchi S, Kokudo N, Uemoto S, Maehara Y. Treatment with sofosbuvir and ledipasvir without ribavirin for 12 weeks is highly effective for recurrent hepatitis C virus genotype 1b infection after living donor liver transplantation: a Japanese multicenter experience. J Gastroenterol. 2017 Aug;52(8):986-991. doi: 10.1007/s00535-017-1310-9. Epub 2017 Jan 30. — View Citation

Wu A, Peng Y, Huang B, Ding X, Wang X, Niu P, Meng J, Zhu Z, Zhang Z, Wang J, Sheng J, Quan L, Xia Z, Tan W, Cheng G, Jiang T. Genome Composition and Divergence of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Originating in China. Cell Host Microbe. 2020 Mar 11;27(3):325-328. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.02.001. Epub 2020 Feb 7. — View Citation

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* Note: There are 20 references in all — Click here to view all references

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change of PCR from positive to negative	The PCR will be done at time of recruitment, day 5, 8, 11, and 14. The time taken to have negative will be measured in each group.	2 weeks
Primary	Clinical improvement	Clinical improvement will be measured by detection of downgrading of cases severity according to the World Health Organization case severity classification.	2 weeks
Secondary	Adverse events	All patients will be asked about any possible adverse effects that they may suffer from taken drugs during their follow up. Any mentioned side effect will be reported. Drug discontinuation and it cause will be also reported if it happened.	2 weeks

External Links

•   Epidemiological data about Covid-19