Three authors involved in Lancet article that drew scrutiny said they couldn’t get full data set behind study; an article in the New England Journal of Medicine was also retracted
Two major studies casting doubt on the ability of antimalaria drugs to treat Covid-19 patients based on data from a little-known Chicago company, Surgisphere Corp., were retracted Thursday.
The Lancet first pulled a study published late last month that found antimalarials provided no benefit as a treatment for Covid-19 infections while increasing the risk of heart problems and death. The New England Journal of Medicine then retracted a separate article, published in early May, that examined the impact of cardiovascular and blood-pressure drugs in Covid-19 patients.
Both articles featured three of the same authors, Mandeep Mehra, Amit Patel and Sapan Desai, and were based on data supplied by Dr. Desai’s company, Surgisphere.
Surgisphere had said it collected the de-identified patient information from hospitals that was used in the studies. The Wall Street Journal contacted more than a dozen large U.S. hospitals, including some that treated high numbers of Covid-19 patients. None said they had an arrangement to share patient data with Surgisphere, and several said they had never heard of it.
Dr. Desai has said previously, through a spokesperson, that his firm was unable to identify the 671 hospitals in the Lancet study due to privacy agreements. He was an author on both papers. Though his name was on the New England Journal of Medicine retraction, it wasn’t on the Lancet retraction.
He declined to comment through a representative on Thursday.
Three of the Lancet paper’s authors said they decided to retract the paper after Surgisphere refused to share the full data set as part of a review triggered by concerns raised by outside researchers. The Lancet published a correction to the study on May 29.
Jared S. Hopkins, Russell Gold – The Wall Street Journal – June 5, 2020.
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