Effect of umifenovir (arbidol) versus standard care on clinical outcome in patients with COVID-19: a retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to spread quickly throughout the world, mainly due to the lack of effective drug therapies and vaccines. The effectiveness of the antiviral drug umifenovir needs to be further clarified. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 1254 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between February 19 and April 5, 2020 in Hubei Maternity and Child Health Hospital. They were divided into umifenovir group (n = 760, 60.60%) and control group (n = 496) without using umifenovir. The primary endpoint was a composite of intubation or death in a time-to-event analysis. The clinical outcomes were compared between the two groups using multivariable Cox analysis with inverse probability weighting according to the propensity score. RESULTS: A total of 760 (60.60%) patients received umifenovir, and 496 patients did not do so. Of the enrolled patients, 1049 (83.65%) had mild or moderate COVID-19, and the remaining 205 had severe or critical COVID-19. The mortality rate in the umifenovir group was 2.76% (21/760) versus 2.02% (10/494) in the control group. In terms of treatment outcomes, the discharge status of the patients in the umifenovir group was no better than that in the control group after propensity score matching (n = 485 in each group). In addition, the respiratory rate, a severe condition, or critical condition of the disease were the three main risk factors affecting the endpoint of death (p = 0.0028, p = 0.0009 and p < 0.0001, respectively). CONCLUSION: This retrospective cohort study showed that oral administration of umifenovir alone did not improve outcomes for patients with COVID-19.