To the Editor,
We read with interest the systematic review and meta-analysis by Lee et al. [1] concerning the use of remdesivir for the treatment of patients with coronavirus disease 2019. The investigators concluded that there is a high probability that remdesivir reduces mortality for non-ventilated patients with coronavirus disease 2019 requiring supplemental oxygen therapy.
Eight randomized clinical trials were included, with 10 751 subjects; however, one of these, conducted in Egypt by Abd-Elsalam et al. [2] and published in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, was recently retracted on 2 September 2022 [3] by the journal editors owing to the overlapping and copying of data with another manuscript and to major concerns related to data error-checking or validation.
Although the retracted study was already considered by the investigators at an overall high risk of bias, we strongly suggest not to consider these data at all in the systematic review and meta-analysis.
Author contributions
A.B. is the corresponding author, prepared the initial draft and review draft. E.N. and T.A.B. screened the literature for relevancy. E.N. provided oversight of conceptualization of the letter. All the authors revised and approved the final version.
Transparency declaration
E.N. received honoraria for lectures from Gilead Sciences. All other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Funding
No specific funding or grant has been received.
Editor: L. Leibovici
References
- 1.Lee T.C., Murhty S., Del Corpo O., Senecal J., Butler-Laporte G., Sohani Z.N., et al. Remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2022;28:1203–1210. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2022.04.018. https://doi:10.1016/j.cmi.2022.04.018 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Abd-Elsalam S., Salama M., Soliman S., Naguib A.M., Ibrahim I.S., Torky M., et al. Remdesivir efficacy in COVID-19 treatment: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021;106:886e90. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.21-0606. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Retracted]
- 3.Abd-Elsalam S. Retraction notice. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2022;103:1635–1639. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1073ret. https://doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.1073ret [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]