AbbVie med disappoints in small COVID-19 study

20 March 2020

Hopes that AbbVie’s (NYSE: ABBV) HIV med Kaletra (lopinavir/ritonavir) could represent an effective treatment for severe COVID-19 have been dashed by a trial failure in China.

Early indications had suggested that the anti-viral had potential as a therapy for the novel coronavirus, which continues to spread globally even as new cases in China, the epicenter of the outbreak, have dwindled.

A test of around 200 Chinese people, details of which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that those receiving the treatment had no better outcome than those who received standard of care.

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