Clinical Efficacy of Arbidol in Patients with 2019 Novel Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: The urgency of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak has led to demand of effective antiviral agents. Preliminary experiment indicated that Arbidol concentrations might inhibit the replication of coronavirus in vitro. However, there was limited data about the clinical efficacy of Arbidol in 2019 novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia (NCP). Methods: We did a retrospective cohort study of NCP patients who received empiric al antiviral regimens with or without Arbidol. A total of 111 patients from two clinical centers in China were enrolled. Findings: Among these patients, 49 were assigned to the empirical treatment with Arbidol group ( group A+ER ) and 62 were assigned to the empirical regimens group (group ER). During the observation period, we found 59.2% patients in group A+ER had virologic conversion at least once, which was significantly higher than 40.3% in group ER (P=0.048). The need for high flow nasal catheter (HFNC) oxygen therapy in hospitalization was obviously reduced in group A+ER than in group ER (P=0.002). About 55.1% patients in group A+ER had focal absorption on chest CT images, obviously higher than 32.2% in group ER (P=0.016). The beneficial effect of Arbidol was more apparent in patients with mild illness severity at admission. The median conversion time of the stable virologic conversion of mild patients in group A+ER can be shortened 2 days than that in group ER (P=0.020). Side effects of the Arbidol were minimal in this study. Interpretation: Our results suggest that Arbidol could accelerate and enhance the process of viral clearance, improve focal absorption on radiologic images, and reduce the demand for HFNC oxygen therapy in hospitalization. These effects were particularly pronounced in patients with mild illness at admission. The results provide basis for clinical use of Arbidol and supports for further randomized controlled trials in patients with NCP.Funding Statement: This study was funded by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2017ZX10105001); National Human Genetic Resources Sharing Service Platform (Grant No. 2005DKA21300); Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (No. SZSM201512005).Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.Ethics Approval Statement: Ethics approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University and the Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital.