Clinical Experience with Ropeginterferon Alfa-2b in the Off-Label Use for the Treatment of COVID-19 Patients in Taiwan.
Journal
Advances in therapy
Journal Volume
39
Journal Issue
2
Pages
910 - 922
ISSN
1865-8652
Date Issued
2022-02
Author(s)
Chen, Kuan-Yuan
Lee, Kang-Yun
Qin, Albert
Luo, Ching-Shan
Yeh, Yun-Kai
Zheng, Jing-Quan
Chen, Ching-Mei
Tsai, Chan-Yen
Lin, Sheena
Liao, Jason
Feng, Po-Hao
Abstract
This study, for the first time to our knowledge, evaluated the efficacy of ropeginterferon alfa-2b, a long-acting pegylated interferon (IFN)-alfa, in the treatment of COVID-19.
We retrospectively evaluated ropeginterferon alfa-2b administered subcutaneously at a single dose of 250 µg for the treatment of mild and moderate COVID-19. Primary outcome was to compare the overall negative conversion time from the confirmed, last positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR to the first RT-PCR negative conversion between patients receiving ropeginterferon alfa-2b plus standard of care (SOC) and those receiving SOC alone.
Thirty-five patients with mild COVID-19 and 37 patients with moderate disease were included. Of them, 19 patients received SOC plus ropeginterferon alfa-2b and 53 patients received SOC alone. All patients with moderate disease in the ropeginterferon alfa-2b group showed RT-PCR negative conversion within 8 days, while a significant portion of patients in the SOC alone group failed to do so. For patients with moderate disease and age ≤ 65 years old, the ropeginterferon alfa-2b group had statistically significant shorter median RT-PCR conversion time than the SOC alone group (7 vs. 11.5 days, p < 0.05).
Ropeginterferon alfa-2b showed the potential for the treatment of moderate COVID-19 patients. A randomized, controlled Phase III study is planned to further assess the effectiveness of ropeginterferon alfa-2b in COVID-19 patients.
Subjects
COVID-19
Coronavirus
Pegylated interferon
Retrospective study
Ropeginterferon alfa-2b
Type
journal article