Retraction of Studies on Potential Drug Therapies for COVID-19: A Call for Reliability and Scientific Integrity

The author of this paper recently discussed the findings on cardiovascular safety of the controversial use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 reported in observational studies, stressing the need of high quality large randomized controlled trials in order to assess the effectiveness and safety of these drugs and other potential therapies for COVID-19.¹ One of the commented studies,² which reported a decrease in the in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of de-novo ventricular arrhythmias with the use of chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, was recently retracted by 3 of the 4 authors, causing controversy in the scientific community and raising serious concerns on the reliability of published papers and the transparency and accountability of researchers particularly in the midst of this global health crisis. The reasons that lead the retraction of the aforementioned study as well as the analysis of other studies with implications for cardiovascular safety that have also been retracted or subjected to an expression of concern, are worthy of consideration.

In a recent comment, Mehra et al² stated that after an unsuccessful attempt to conduct an independent peer review of the database on which their findings were based, they can no longer assure the veracity of their conclusions thus, they requested the retraction of their publication. Likewise, a different study conducted by Mehra et al³ assessed the relationship of cardiovascular disease and drug therapy with in-hospital mortality among patients with COVID-19. In this study the authors reported no increased risk of in-hospital mortality associated with the use of angiotensin-converting–enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers. However, in a subsequent letter the authors argued that they were unable to access to the raw data and the database was not available to a third-party auditor validation therefore, the authors asked for retraction of the paper.³ At this time, 15 studies about COVID-19 have been retracted, 2 temporarily retracted and 1 subjected to an expression of concern.⁴

The rush for showing results and publishing papers despite its lack of validation, as health professionals and patients desperately seek treatment options, illustrate the obvious need for strengthening the review process of papers for accuracy and reliability before publication and a call to follow the standards of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the Committee on Publication Ethics. Considerations regarding veracity and scientific integrity are of utmost importance. As previously stated by the author of this paper, the current findings on efficacy and safety of the potential therapies for COVID-19 require validation from high-quality large randomized controlled trials.¹