Breakthrough: Chloroquine phosphate has shown apparent efficacy in treatment of COVID-19 associated pneumonia in clinical studies
Authors: Xu Yang
Zhenxue Tian
Jianjun Gao
Journal: Bioscience trends (2020)
Discipline: BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
Keywords: 2019-nCoV; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; chloroquine; pneumonia.
Affiliations: Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China., Department of Pharmacy, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, China.

Abstract:  The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) virus is spreading rapidly, and scientists are endeavoring to discover drugs for its efficacious treatment in China. Chloroquine phosphate, an old drug for treatment of malaria, is shown to have apparent efficacy and acceptable safety against COVID-19 associated pneumonia in multicenter clinical trials conducted in China. The drug is recommended to be included in the next version of the Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Pneumonia Caused by COVID-19 issued by the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China for treatment of COVID-19 infection in larger populations in the future. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 I just watched the entre list of study who are supposed to prove the effet of chloroquine on Covid-19 : list below : ChiCTR2000029939, ChiCTR2000029935, ChiCTR2000029899, ChiCTR2000029898, ChiCTR2000029868, ChiCTR2000029837, ChiCTR2000029826, ChiCTR2000029803, ChiCTR2000029762, ChiCTR2000029761, ChiCTR2000029760, ChiCTR2000029740, ChiCTR2000029609, ChiCTR2000029559, and ChiCTR2000029542 All of these studies are : still going, or canceled due to lack of patient. on the 30 03 2020 You can verify by yourself here : http: www.chictr.org.cn searchprojen.aspx?title= officialname= subjectid= secondaryid= applier= studyleader= ethicalcommitteesanction= sponsor= studyailment= studyailmentcode= studytype=0 studystage=0 studydesign=0 minstudyexecutetime= maxstudyexecutetime= recruitmentstatus=0 gender=0 agreetosign= secsponsor= regno=ChiCTR2000029542 regstatus=0 country= province= city= institution= institutionlevel= measure= intercode= sourceofspends= createyear=0 isuploadrf= whetherpublic= btngo=btn verifycode= page=1. Therefore this paper contain no reference about any existing clinical studies proving the efficiency of chloroquine for Covid-19 Disease. , 
 If the claim by #1 is true, how is it possible that this J-STAGE- and PubMed-indexed paper was allowed to be published? Based on pure hype? And labelled as a  breakthrough nonetheless. One wonders if the BioScience Trends editors even bothered to run through the database that #1 alludes to. It would be very helpful if the authors and editors could offer comment. Society and the academic community can appreciate the urgency and rush to find a solution to COVID-19, but at what expense to the integrity and rigor of the published literature? , 
 I would just like to add 4 important impressions about this obscure media letter: 1. There is **no record of studies in conduct, published, under review or in peer reviews**, not only in English but in Chinese of the study cited 2. The referred researcher is part of other works in vitro with chloroquine and therefore lacks exemption due to biases of positive interest on previous research. 3. Subsequently, published from same author assigned another paper, that would be half the fault of this article in the same magazine with a rationale conclusion that there is no evidence at the moment to treat COVID-19 with chloroquine hydroxychloroquine, showing the evident advertising function of this article.[link article ] 4. The **reputation of this scientific journal**, which is originally a journal of basic science and biology, and which recently published in the same volume dozens of articles on infectology and internal medicine with the theme COVID-19, is appalling, how this obscure letter is the most cited and sharing article of this journal when it shows and inform nothing at all, mainly because when looking in the references for information that confirms the mentioned, we found only dialogues, texts from the Ministry of Health of China and videos without connection and all in Chinese. Not a sign of data from 100 patients using chloroquine ,