After controlling for baseline viral load, patients receiving peginterferon lambda significantly more likely to have undetectable viral load<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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TUESDAY, Feb. 9, 2021 (HealthDay News) — For outpatients with COVID-19, peginterferon lambda accelerates viral decline, according to a study published online Feb. 5 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jordan J. Feld, M.D., from the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, and colleagues conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial involving outpatients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19. Participants were randomly assigned to either a single subcutaneous injection of peginterferon lambda or placebo in a 1:1 ratio (30 patients per group).<\/p>\n The researchers found that from day 3 onward, the decline in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 RNA was greater for those treated with peginterferon lambda than placebo, with a difference of 2.42 log copies\/mL at day 7 (P = 0.0041). By day 7, 80 and 63 percent of participants in the peginterferon lambda and placebo groups, respectively, had an undetectable viral load (P = 0.15). Patients in the peginterferon lambda group were significantly more likely to have undetectable viral load by day 7 after controlling for baseline viral load (odds ratio, 4.12; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.15 to 16.73; P = 0.029). Overall, 79 and 38 percent of those with baseline viral load greater than 106<\/sup> copies\/mL had undetectable virus on day 7 in the peginterferon lambda and placebo groups, respectively (odds ratio, 6.25; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.49 to 31.06; P = 0.012).<\/p>\n “This treatment might have potential to avert clinical deterioration, shorten the duration of infectiousness, and reduce isolation time, with substantial public health and societal effects,” the authors write.<\/p>\n Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, which supplied the study medication.<\/p>\n