A 2020 paper that caused a shortage of an anti-malarial drug also used to treat autoimmune disorders like lupus was just retracted by the journal that published it.
In March of 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents published a study claiming hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment for the virus. After years of complaints, the study was retracted today. According to the retraction from the IJAA:
Concerns have been raised regarding this article, the substance of which relate to the articles' adherence to Elsevier's publishing ethics policies and the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants, as well as concerns raised by three of the authors themselves regarding the article's methodology and conclusions.
When the paper was initially published, scientists immediately raised alarms about the small size of the study and the short, four-day peer review period. In addition, six of the initial study participants were dropped, one of whom died, and two were moved to intensive care, making the drug appear more effective than it was.
Subsequent studies showed that hydroxychloroquine was not an effective treatment for COVID-19. There were reports of COVID patients treated with hydroxychloroquine suffering severe cardiac side effects, even death. In addition, the drug, which was originally used to treat malaria, but is now used to treat lupus and other autoimmune disorders, became hard to find nationwide.
In the years since, scientists have continued to speak out about these, and other issues with the study. According Science:
Critics of [the] paper have pointed out more damning problems since. In an August 2023 letter published in Therapies, Bik and colleagues noted the cutoff for classifying a polymerase chain reaction test as positive was different in the treatment and control groups. The letter also raised questions about whether the study had received proper ethical approval, and noted an editorial conflict of interest: IJAA's editor-in-chief at the time, Jean-Marc Rolain, was also one of the authors.
Three of the initial authors asked to have their names removed from the paper, but several of the authors continue to stand by the results in the published paper.
