interferon beta-1a as a candidate for covid-19 treatment; an open-label single-arm clinical trial

Introduction: since december 2019, an outbreak of covid-19 has caused growing concern in multiple countries. researchers around the world are working to find a treatment or a vaccine for covid-19 and different treatment approaches have been tested in this regard. objective: this study was designed and conducted to assess the possible efficacy of interferon beta-1a as a safe and efficient candidate for covid-19 treatment. methods: this is an investigator-initiated, open-label, single-arm clinical trial. twenty patients with suspected covid-19, who were admitted to sina hospital in tehran, iran, with moderate to severe symptoms, from 6 to 10 march, 2020, were enrolled. patients were treated with antiviral and hydroxychloroquine combination therapy, along with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a for 5 consecutive days. baseline characteristics and findings during the course of admission and 5 days after discharge were recorded for all the patients. results: in total, 20 patients with suspected covid-19 were included in this study, 12 (60%) of which were male. the median (interquartile (iq) range) of patients’ age was 55.5 (43-63.5). the most common symptom of the patients at onset of disease was fever. the median (iq range) of duration of hospital stay was 5.0 (3-6) days. only 2 cases were admitted to icu. at the time of follow-up, 15 (94%) patients reported that they generally felt good and had oral tolerance, 1 patient had suffered from dyspnea, 5 patients had suffered from cough, none of them had experienced fever and no case of re-admission or death was reported after discharge. conclusions: results of the current study are in favor of using interferon beta-1a in addition to recommended antiviral treatment in covid-19 patients.