Comparison of the antiviral effect of Arbidol and Chloroquine in treating COVID-19

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was broken out in December 2019 and soon became a global health emergency. Effective treatment for COVID-19 is urgently needed. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the antiviral effect of Arbidol vs. Chloroquine in treating COVID-19. We retrospectively analyzed 62 patients with COVID-19 diagnosed according to the guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 in China. They were divided into two groups depending on the antiviral drugs that they received. Participants in the Arbidol group (n=42) received 0.2 g Arbidol, tid for 10 days,and those in Chloroquine group (n=20) received 500 mg Chloroquine, bid for 10 days. The coronavirus negative conversion time and the length of hospital stay were analyzed and compared between the two groups. There was no significant difference in demographic and clinical characteristics between the two groups. After antiviral treatment, the nasopharyngeal specimen negative conversion time of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the length of hospital stay in the Arbidol group were significantly shorter than those in the Chloroquine group (18.50 vs. 25.05 days, P=0.001; 23.52 vs. 28.75 days, P=0.001). Adverse events observed during the antiviral treatment period were comparable between the two groups. Overall, 3 (7.14%) participants in the Arbidol group and 4 (20.0%) in the Chloroquine group experienced adverse events during antiviral treatment. These results suggest that Arbidol is advantageous over Chloroquine in terms of the SARS-CoV-2 negative conversion and the length of hospital stay in treating COVID-19 patients.