Retraction Note to: Efficacy of favipiravir in COVID‑19 treatment: a multi‑center randomized study

Retraction to: Archives of Virology (2021) 166:949–954 10.1007/s00705-021-04956-9

The Editor-in-Chief has retracted this article. After publication, concerns were raised about the reporting of this clinical trial and the authors were asked to provide their raw data files. The raw data underlying Table 1 were examined. First, the reported baseline variables showed that the distribution of one variable was highly statistically different in the two study groups. Second, two variables showed different rounding to significant figures in the two groups. Third, for two variables, there was a different distribution of the variables when moving through the groups. It is unclear how these variations could occur in a correctly performed trial so that serious doubts must arise on the randomization process and on the data validity. These doubts are reinforced by the equal gender distribution even though gender was not stated to be an inclusion parameter by the authors. The Editor-in-Chief therefore no longer has confidence in the results and conclusions presented. Sherief Abd Elsalam and Shaimaa Soliman disagree with this retraction. Hany M. Dabbous, Manal H. El Sayed, Ahmed F. Sherief, Fatma F. S. Ebeid, Mohamed Samir Abd El Ghafar, Mohamed Elbahnasawy, Rehab Badawi and Mohamed Awad Tageldin have not responded to correspondence from the publisher about this retraction.