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Commonly used HIV drug being tested in COVID-19 trials

Contributor

Gscene update for this article May 6th 2020: This trial will not prove that PREP prevents Coronavirus, but may show an option for the use of these medications to  treat it. This clinical trial in Spain is looking into whether TDF/FTC will prevent COVID-19 or reduce the severity of the illness in healthcare workers. However, doing a trial does not mean that the drugs will work – it just means that it is being explored as a possibility. See THT PrEP pages for further info about PrEP

Medical researchers in Spain are testing whether HIV medication Truvada, often used as PrEP, can also help treat Covid-19.

Spain has been one of the hardest hit countries in the Covid-19 pandemic, with one in 10 deaths reported to be from the healthcare community, and the study will focus on whether healthcare workers could take Truvada, along with a range of other interventions,  to prevent them getting Covid-19.

The study is led by Plan Nacional sobre el Sida, the Spanish National AIDS Plan, and began on April 1 for an initial period of 12 weeks.

There is no suggestion that HIV medication of any sort could or should be seen as a Covid-19 cure or prevention tool. There has been some speculation that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine may also be a possible source of prevention and this drug will also be included in the trials also examining Truvada.

Truvada consists of two drugs, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and emtricitabine, and has long been a part of highly effective combination therapies for people living with HIV. It is also used by some HIV-negative people as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, soon to be made widely available across the National Health Service.

The Spanish study will enrol 4,000 participants randomised into groups taking one of a range of single-dose daily regimens. Initial results are expected to be published in late July/August.

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