Efficacy of Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine in Treating Pneumonia Caused by SARS-Cov-2 - COVID-19

Facing the challenge of finding an efficient treatment for COVID-19, the viral pneumonia caused by the Coronavirus SARS-Cov-2, this study intended to test if Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine, two drugs with strong in-vitro antiviral role proven by numerous studies and with a well defined safety profile established, for efficacy in treating COVID-19 and improving an ordinal primary outcome composed by a 9-levels scale, which was recomended by the World Health Organization.

This is a Phase 3, Pragmatic, Multicentric Randomized Controled Trial of efficacy to test the effect of either Chloroquine or Hydroxychloroquine for 5 days in the recomended dose standardized by brazilian Ministry of Health. Patients were randomized (1:1) using stratified randomization by hospital and severity at the moment of randomization (stipulated by use of mechanical ventilation or not) into two arms: Intervention and Control. Intervention group recieved a loading dose of 900mg of Chloroquine or 800mg of Hydroxycloroquine in the first day, followed by 450mg of chloroquine of 400mg of hydroxychloroquine. Primary and secondary outcomes were evaluated on the 5th, 7th, 10th, 14th, 28th day after randomization. Although the outcomes presented in the latest version were updated late on ClinicalTrials.org, on October 23, 2020, these outcomes were already present in the trial protocol approved by the Brazilian National Commission for Ethics in Research on April 8, 2020 (approval number: 3960331) and amending the protocol, approved by the same National Commission on May 25, 2020 (approval number: 4044848)