Clinical effectiveness of molnupiravir in patients with COVID-19 undergoing haemodialysis

BACKGROUND: Molnupiravir is an essential oral antiviral agent against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); however, its real-world effectiveness has not been evaluated in patients undergoing haemodialysis (HD). METHODS: This multi-centre retrospective study, involving 225 patients undergoing HD with initially mild or asymptomatic COVID-19, was conducted to compare the risks of 30-day COVID-19-related acute care visits between patients receiving and not receiving molnupiravir. Patients who received molnupiravir were stratified by rapid antigen detection (RAD) test results on day 7 after disease onset to assess whether rapid molnupiravir introduction accelerated viral clearance. RESULTS: Thirty-day COVID-19-related acute care visits were reported in 9.41% and 21.74% of the molnupiravir and control groups, respectively, and use of molnupiravir markedly reduced the risk of acute care visits after adjusting for baseline characteristics via propensity score weighting [hazard ratio 0.218, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.074–0.642; P=0.006]. The tolerability of molnupiravir in the enrolled patients was generally acceptable, with only 11.88% of molnupiravir users reporting mild adverse events. Moreover, rapid initiation of molnupiravir within 1 day of COVID-19 onset was an independent predictor of conversion to a negative RAD test result on day 7 after disease onset (odds ratio 6.207, 95% CI 2.509–15.358; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Molnupiravir is well tolerated and decreases the medical needs in patients with COVID-19 undergoing HD. Furthermore, the rapid initiation of molnupiravir accelerates viral clearance in patients with COVID-19 undergoing HD. These findings highlight the therapeutic role of molnupiravir for this vulnerable population.