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 The Lancet medical journal pulled the study after three of its
authors retracted it, citing concerns about the quality and veracity
of data in it. The World Health Organization (WHO) will resume its
hydroxychloroquine trials after pausing them in the wake of the
study. Dozens of other trials have resumed or are in process.
The three authors said Surgisphere, the company that provided the
data, would not transfer the dataset for an independent review and
they "can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data
sources."
The fourth author of the study, Dr. Sapan Desai, chief executive of
Surgisphere, declined to comment on the retraction.
The Lancet said it "takes issues of scientific integrity extremely
seriously" adding: "There are many outstanding questions about
Surgisphere and the data that were allegedly included in this
study".
Another study in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that
used Surgisphere data and shared the same lead author, Harvard
Medical School Professor Mandeep Mehra, was retracted for the same
reason.
The Lancet said reviews of Surgisphere's research collaborations
were urgently needed.
The race to understand and treat the new coronavirus causing the
COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the pace of research and
peer-reviewed scientific journals are go-to sources of information
for doctors, policymakers and lay people alike.
Chris Chambers, a professor of psychology and an expert at the UK
Center for Open Science, said The Lancet and the NEJM - which he
described as "ostensibly two of the world’s most prestigious medical
journals" - should investigate how the studies got through peer
review and editorial checks.
"The failure to resolve such basic concerns about the data" raises
"serious questions about the standard of editing" and about the
process of peer review, he said.
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The Lancet did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The
NEJM could not immediately be reached for comment.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
The observational study published in The Lancet on May 22 said it looked at
96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, some treated with the decades-old malaria
drug. It claimed that those treated with hydroxychloroquine or the related
chloroquine had higher risk of death and heart rhythm problems than patients who
were not given the medicines.
"I did not do enough to ensure that the data source was appropriate for this
use," the study's lead author, Professor Mehra, said in a statement. "For that,
and for all the disruptions – both directly and indirectly – I am truly sorry."
Many scientists voiced concern about the study, which had already been corrected
last week because some location data was wrong. Nearly 150 doctors signed an
open letter to The Lancet calling the article's conclusions into question and
asking to make public the peer review comments that preceded publication.
Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said the retraction decision was "correct" but still
left unanswered the question about whether hydroxychloroquine is effective in
COVID-19.
"It remains the case that the results from randomised trials are necessary to
draw reliable conclusions," he said.
(Reporting by Michael Erman, Peter Henderson, Kate Kelland and Josephine Mason;
Editing by Leslie Adler, Tom Brown, Giles Elgood and Carmel Crimmins)
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