Trial ChiCTR2000030254
Publication Chen C, Front Pharmacol, 2021 (published paper)
Dates: 2020-02-20 to 2020-03-01
Funding: Public/non profit (National Key Research and Development Program of China)
Conflict of interest: No

Methods
RCT
Blinding: Unblinded
Location : Multicenter / China
Follow-up duration (days): 17
Inclusion criteriaAged 18 years or older; Voluntarily provided informed consent; Initial symptoms were within 12 days; Diagnosed as COVID-19 pneumonia, according to the Chinese Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia at that moment or COVID-19 could be diagnosed without a positive SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test result by:
(1) a positive chest CT scan;
(2) significant clinical manifestation including pyrexia, cough, breath difficulty and other indications of viral infection of lower respiratory tract; and
(3) laboratory results indicating lymphopenia and (optional) leukopenia; male and female adult patients with clinically confirmed COVID-19 including moderate, severe or critical types of COVID-19.
Exclusion criteriaAllergic to Favipiravir or Arbidol; Elevated ALT/AST (>6x upper limit of normal range) or with chronic liver disease (cirrhosis at grade Child-Pugh C); Severe/Critical patients whose expected survival time were <48 hours; female in pregnancy; HIV infection; Considered unsuitable by researchers for the patient’s best interest.
Interventions
Treatment
Favipiravir
1600 mg orally twice a day on the first day, followed by 600 mg orally twice a day for 6-9 days
Control
Umifenovir (200mg)
Duration : 7 days
Participants
Randomized
240 participants (n1=120 / n2= 120)
Characteristics of participants
N=240
Mean age : NR
110 males
Severity : Mild: n=0 / Moderate: n=209/ Severe: n=24 Critical: n=3
Primary outcome
In the register
Clinical recovery rate of day 7
In the report
Clinical recovery rate at 7 days of drug administration
Documents
available

Protocol

Yes. In English

Statistical plan

NR

Data-sharing stated

Yes
Risk of bias
Overall
The overall risk of bias reported in the table corresponds to the highest risk of bias for the outcomes assessed for the systematic review
Some concerns
General comment In addition to all available versions of the published/pre-print article, the study registry and protocol were used in data extraction and risk of bias assessment. The study achieved the target sample size specified in the trial registry. There is no change from the registry in the intervention and control treatments, nor in the primary outcome. Some outcomes from the registry are not reported in the paper (e.g., mortality). The outcome adverse events is reported in the paper, but was not pre-specified in the trial registry/protocol. Of note: the report text states "The cases of respiratory failure in the two group were both 4", but the table shows 1 case for the Favipirivir group and 4 cases for the Umifenovir group.
This trial was updated on September 30th, 2021 with data from the peer-reviewed publication.