BAD DATA: Medical Journal The Lancet Retracts Major COVID-19 Paper on Malaria Drug Concerns
Posted on 06/04/2020
Popular medical journal The Lancet retracted a May 2020 influential study that showed concerns about the safety of the experimental COVID-19 treatments chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. The reason for the retraction is due to the scrutiny of the data underlying the research paper. Some experts raised concerns after noticing inconsistencies in the data. Healthcare analytics company Surgisphere was the company that compiled and analyzed the data in the study. The authors said that Surgisphere was not cooperating with the independent reviewers and would not provide the data.
“We can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources,” Mandeep Mehra of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Frank Ruschitzka of University Hospital Zurich, and Amit Patel of University of Utah said in a statement. “Due to this unfortunate development, the authors request that the paper be retracted.”
The findings from the study led to a number of halt of some global clinical trials studying hydroxychloroquine, including a study by the World Health Organization (WHO).