Remdesivir plus standard of care versus standard of care alone for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (DisCoVeRy): a phase 3, randomised, controlled, open-label trial

Florence Ader (1, 2) , Maude Bouscambert-Duchamp (1) , Maya Hites (3) , Nathan Peiffer-Smadja (4, 5) , Julien Poissy (6) , Drifa Belhadi (4) , Alpha Diallo (7) , Minh-Patrick Lê (8) , Gilles Peytavin (4) , Thérèse Staub (9) , Richard Greil (10) , Jérémie Guedj (4) , Jose-Artur Paiva (11) , Dominique Costagliola (12) , Yazdan Yazdanpanah (4) , Charles Burdet (4) , France Mentré (4) , Alexander Egle , Richard Greil , Michael Joannidis , Bernd Lamprecht , Antoine Altdorfer , Leila Belkhir , Vincent Fraipont , Maya Hites , Gil Verschelden , Jérôme Aboab , Florence Ader , Hafid Ait-Oufella , Claire Andrejak , Pascal Andreu , Laurent Argaud , Firouzé Bani-Sadr , François Benezit , Mathieu Blot , Elisabeth Botelho-Nevers , Lila Bouadma , Olivier Bouchaud , David Bougon , Kevin Bouiller , Fanny Bounes-Vardon , David Boutoille , Alexandre Boyer , Cédric Bruel , André Cabié , Emmanuel Canet , Charles Cazanave , Cyrille Chabartier , Catherine Chirouze , Raphaël Clere-Jehl , Johan Courjon , Flora Crockett , François Danion , Agathe Delbove , Jean Dellamonica , Félix Djossou , Clément Dubost , Alexandre Duvignaud , Olivier Epaulard , Loïc Epelboin , Murielle Fartoukh , Karine Faure , Emmanuel Faure , Tristan Ferry , Cécile Ficko , Samy Figueiredo , Benjamin Gaborit , Rostane Gaci , Amandine Gagneux-Brunon , Sébastien Gallien , Denis Garot , Guillaume Geri , Sébastien Gibot , François Goehringer , Marie Gousseff , Didier Gruson , Yves Hansmann , Olivier Hinschberger , Stéphane Jaureguiberry , Vanessa Jeanmichel , Solen Kerneis , Antoine Kimmoun , Kada Klouche (13, 14) , Marie Lachâtre , Karine Lacombe , Fabrice Laine , Jean-Philippe Lanoix , Odile Launay , Bruno Laviolle (15, 16) , Vincent Le Moing , Jérôme Le Pavec , Yves Le Tulzo (15) , Paul Le Turnier , David Lebeaux , Benjamin Lefevre , Sylvie Leroy , François-Xavier Lescure , Henry Lessire , Benjamin Leveau , Paul Loubet , Alain Makinson , Denis Malvy , Charles-Hugo Marquette , Guillaume Martin-Blondel , Martin Martinot , Julien Mayaux , Armand Mekontso-Dessap , Ferhat Meziani , Jean-Paul Mira , Jean-Michel Molina , Xavier Monnet , Joy Mootien , Bruno Mourvillier , Marlène Murris-Espin , Jean-Christophe Navellou , Saad Nseir , Walid Oulehri , Nathan Peiffer-Smadja , Thomas Perpoint , Gilles Pialoux , Benoît Pilmis , Vincent Piriou , Lionel Piroth , Julien Poissy , Valérie Pourcher , Jean-Pierre Quenot , François Raffi , Jean Reignier , Matthieu Revest (15, 17) , Jean-Christophe Richard (18, 19) , Béatrice Riu-Poulenc , Céline Robert , Pierre-Alexandre Roger , Claire Roger , Elisabeth Rouveix-Nordon , Yvon Ruch , Nadia Saidani , Naomi Sayre , Eric Senneville , Albert Sotto , Francois Stefan , Charles Tacquard , Nicolas Terzi , Julien Textoris , Guillaume Thiery , Jean-François Timsit , Violaine Tolsma , Jean-Marie Turmel , Florent Valour , Florent Wallet , Guilhem Wattecamps , Yazdan Yazdanpanah , Yoann Zerbib , Marc Berna , Jean Reuter , Thérèse Staub , Sandra Braz , Joao-Miguel Ferreira Ribeiro , José-Artur Paiva , Roberto Roncon-Albuquerque , Maude Bouscambert-Duchamp , Alexandre Gaymard , Minh-Patrick Lê , Bruno Lina , Gilles Peytavin , Sarah Tubiana , Sandrine Couffin-Cadièrgues , Hélène Esperou , Drifa Belhadi , Charles Burdet , Dominique Costagliola , Aline Dechanet , Christelle Delmas , Alpha Diallo , Claire Fougerou , Jérémie Guedj , France Mentré , Noémie Mercier , Marion Noret , Juliette Saillard , Priyanka Velou

1 HCL - Hospices Civils de Lyon
2 CIRI - Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie
3 ULB - Université libre de Bruxelles
4 IAME (UMR_S_1137 / U1137) - Infection, Anti-microbiens, Modélisation, Evolution
5 Imperial College London
6 UGSF - Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle - UMR 8576
7 ANRS|MIE - ANRS|Maladies infectieuses émergentes
8 OPTeN (UMR_S_1144 / U1144) - Optimisation thérapeutique en Neuropsychopharmacologie
9 CHL - Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg [Luxembourg]
10 PMU - Paracelsus Medizinische Privatuniversität = Paracelsus Medical University
11 Universidade do Porto = University of Porto
12 iPLESP - Institut Pierre Louis d'Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique
13 PhyMedExp - Physiologie & médecine expérimentale du Cœur et des Muscles [U 1046]
14 CHRU Montpellier - Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire [Montpellier]
15 CHU Pontchaillou [Rennes]
16 CIC - Centre d'Investigation Clinique [Rennes]
17 BRM - ARN régulateurs bactériens et médecine
18 CREATIS - Centre de Recherche en Acquisition et Traitement de l'Image pour la Santé
19 MYRIAD - Modeling & analysis for medical imaging and Diagnosis

Background: The antiviral efficacy of remdesivir against SARS-CoV-2 is still controversial. We aimed to evaluate the clinical efficacy of remdesivir plus standard of care compared with standard of care alone in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, with indication of oxygen or ventilator support. Methods: DisCoVeRy was a phase 3, open-label, adaptive, multicentre, randomised, controlled trial conducted in 48 sites in Europe (France, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Luxembourg). Adult patients (aged ≥18 years) admitted to hospital with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and illness of any duration were eligible if they had clinical evidence of hypoxaemic pneumonia, or required oxygen supplementation. Exclusion criteria included elevated liver enzymes, severe chronic kidney disease, any contraindication to one of the studied treatments or their use in the 29 days before random assignment, or use of ribavirin, as well as pregnancy or breastfeeding. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1:1) to receive standard of care alone or in combination with remdesivir, lopinavir-ritonavir, lopinavir-ritonavir and interferon beta-1a, or hydroxychloroquine. Randomisation used computer-generated blocks of various sizes; it was stratified on severity of disease at inclusion and on European administrative region. Remdesivir was administered as 200 mg intravenous infusion on day 1, followed by once daily, 1-h infusions of 100 mg up to 9 days, for a total duration of 10 days. It could be stopped after 5 days if the participant was discharged. The primary outcome was the clinical status at day 15 measured by the WHO seven-point ordinal scale, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed in the modified intention-to-treat population and was one of the secondary outcomes. This trial is registered with the European Clinical Trials Database, EudraCT2020-000936-23, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04315948. Findings: Between March 22, 2020, and Jan 21, 2021, 857 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to remdesivir plus standard of care (n=429) or standard of care only (n=428). 15 participants were excluded from analysis in the remdesivir group, and ten in the control group. At day 15, the distribution of the WHO ordinal scale was: (1) not hospitalised, no limitations on activities (61 [15%] of 414 in the remdesivir group vs 73 [17%] of 418 in the control group); (2) not hospitalised, limitation on activities (129 [31%] vs 132 [32%]); (3) hospitalised, not requiring supplemental oxygen (50 [12%] vs 29 [7%]); (4) hospitalised, requiring supplemental oxygen (76 [18%] vs 67 [16%]); (5) hospitalised, on non-invasive ventilation or high flow oxygen devices (15 [4%] vs 14 [3%]); (6) hospitalised, on invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (62 [15%] vs 79 [19%]); (7) death (21 [5%] vs 24 [6%]). The difference between treatment groups was not significant (odds ratio 0·98 [95% CI 0·77-1·25]; p=0·85). There was no significant difference in the occurrence of serious adverse events between treatment groups (remdesivir, 135 [33%] of 406 vs control, 130 [31%] of 418; p=0·48). Three deaths (acute respiratory distress syndrome, bacterial infection, and hepatorenal syndrome) were considered related to remdesivir by the investigators, but only one by the sponsor's safety team (hepatorenal syndrome). Interpretation: No clinical benefit was observed from the use of remdesivir in patients who were admitted to hospital for COVID-19, were symptomatic for more than 7 days, and required oxygen support.

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Human health and pathology; Infectious diseases

Florence Ader, Maude Bouscambert-Duchamp, Maya Hites, Nathan Peiffer-Smadja, Julien Poissy, et al.. Remdesivir plus standard of care versus standard of care alone for the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (DisCoVeRy): a phase 3, randomised, controlled, open-label trial. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 2022, 22 (2), pp.209-221. ⟨10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00485-0⟩. ⟨hal-03812289⟩