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Real-world evidence on the effectiveness of oral antivirals in mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients is urgently needed. This retrospective cohort study aims to evaluate the clinical and virologic outcomes associated with molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir use in COVID-19 patients during a pandemic wave dominated by the Omicron BA.2 variant.

We analyzed data from a territory-wide retrospective cohort of hospitalized patients with confirmed diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection from 26th February 2022 to 26th April 2022 in Hong Kong. Oral antiviral users were matched with controls using propensity-score matching in a ratio of 1:4. Study outcomes were a composite outcome of disease progression (all-cause mortality, initiation of invasive mechanical ventilation [IMV], or intensive care unit admission) and their individual outcomes, and lower viral load of cycle threshold (Ct) value ≥30 cycles. Hazard ratios (HR) of event outcomes were estimated using Cox regression models.

Among 40,776 hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection over a mean follow-up of 41.3 days with 925,713 person-days, 2,359 and 1,000 patients not initially requiring oxygen therapy were initiated with molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, respectively. The crude incidence rates of all-cause mortality and IMV were 22.24 and 1.06 events per 10,000 person-days among molnupiravir users, 11.04 and 1.75 events per 10,000 person-days among nirmatrelvir/ritonavir users. Oral antiviral use was associated with a significantly lower risk of the composite outcome of disease progression (molnupiravir: HR=0.53, 95%CI=0.46-0.62, p<0.001 …