Trial reportInternational journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases2021
Efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon alfa-2b in moderate COVID-19: A phase II, randomized, controlled, open-label study.
Trial report in International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 40 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drug treatments for mild or moderate covid-19: systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2025Pooled it
- Efficacy of interferon alpha for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Computational Analysis Reveals Monomethylated Triazolopyrimidine as a Novel Inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase (RdRp).Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon-α2b in moderate COVID-19: a phase 3, randomized, comparator-controlled, open-label study.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2021Trial
- In search for a panacea for coronavirus disease-19: Analysis of ongoing clinical trials for the management of coronavirus disease-19 pandemic in India.Indian journal of pharmacologyTrial
- Recombinant LAB vector engineered to secrete chicken IFN-λ3 induces an early but sustained activation of antiviral host responses against AIV infection.Poultry science · 2025Article
- Evaluation of Type I Interferon Treatment in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Harnessing the power of IFN for therapeutic approaches to COVID-19.Journal of virology · 2024Review
- Construction of viral-based expression vectors for high-level production of human interferon alpha 2b in plants.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2024Article
- Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Ropeginterferon Alfa-2b in COVID-19 Patients with Comorbidities.Advances in therapy · 2024Article
- Does haste make waste? Prevalence and types of errors reported after publication of studies of COVID-19 therapeutics.Systematic reviews · 2023Review
- Review
- Therapeutic Effectiveness of Interferon-α2b against COVID-19 with Community-Acquired Pneumonia: The Ukrainian Experience.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Role of interferons in the antiviral battle: from virus-host crosstalk to prophylactic and therapeutic potential in SARS-CoV-2 infection.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Robustness of Significant Dichotomous Outcomes in Randomized Controlled Trials in the Treatment of Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Analysis.Intensive care research · 2023Article
- Non-coding RNAs derived from the foot-and-mouth disease virus genome trigger broad antiviral activity against coronaviruses.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Article
- A Comprehensive Review on the Efficacy of Several Pharmacologic Agents for the Treatment of COVID-19.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon alfa-2b (PEG IFN-α2b) along with the standard of care (SOC) in subjects with moderate COVID-19.
methodsIn this phase 2, randomized, open-label study, adult subjects aged ≥18 years with RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 with moderate symptoms were randomized in a 1:1 to receive PEG IFN-α2b plus SOC, or SOC alone. The primary endpoint was improvement in clinical status on day 15, measured by the WHO 7-point ordinal scale.
resultsForty subjects were randomized to PEG IFN-α2b plus SOC (n = 20) and SOC (n = 20). Overall, 19 (95.00%) subjects in PEG IFN-α2b plus SOC had achieved clinical improvement on day 15 compared to 13 (68.42%) subjects in SOC (p < 0.05). Overall, 80% and 95% of subjects in the PEG IFN-α2b plus SOC group had a negative RT-PCR result on day 7 and day 14, respectively, compared to 63% and 68% in the SOC group. Adverse events (AEs) were reported for eleven subjects in the PEG IFN-α2b plus SOC group and eight subjects in the SOC group. All reported AEs were mild.
conclusionThe significant improvement in clinical status on day 15 is likely due to faster viral reduction compared to SOC with the PEG IFN-α2b treated moderate COVID-19 subjects showing a difference as early as day seven and becoming significant by day 14.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.