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. 2023 Jan 19;20(3):1835.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20031835.

Retraction of Clinical Trials about the SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Unaddressed Problem and Its Possible Impact on Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 Treatment

Affiliations

Retraction of Clinical Trials about the SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Unaddressed Problem and Its Possible Impact on Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 Treatment

Felipe Eduardo Valencise et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

We are presenting an overview of the retracted clinical trials about the Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 published in PubMed using the descriptors ((COVID-19 OR SARS-CoV-2) AND (Clinical Trial)). We collected the information for i) the first author's country; ii) the journal name where the study was published; iii) the impact factor of the journal; iv) the main objective of the study; v) methods including population, intervention, study design, and outcomes; and vi) results and conclusions. We collected complete information from the retraction notes published by the journals and the number of publications/retractions related to non-COVID-19 clinical trials published simultaneously. We also included the Altmetric index for the clinical trials and the retraction notes about COVID-19 to compare the accessibility to both studies' indexes. The retraction of clinical trials occurred in four countries (one in Lebanon, one in India, one in Brazil, and five in Egypt) and six journals (one in Viruses, one in Archives of Virology, one in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, one in Frontiers in Medicine, two in Scientific Reports, and two in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene). Eight drugs were tested (Ivermectin, Vitamin D, Proxalutamide, Hydroxychloroquine, Remdesevir, Favipiravir, and Sofosbuvir + Daclatasvir) in the studies. One of the retractions was suggested by the authors due to an error in the statistical analysis, which compromised their results and conclusions. Also, the methods, mainly the allocation, were not well conducted in the two studies, and the studies were retracted. In addition, the studies performed by Dabbous et al. presented several issues, mainly including several raw datasets that did not prove their findings. Moreover, two studies were retracted due to data overlap and copying. Significant concerns were raised about the integrity of the data and reported results in another article. We identified a higher Altmetric index for the original studies, proving that the retracted studies were accessed more than the retraction notes. Interestingly, the impact of the original articles is much higher than their retraction notes. The different Altmetric indexes show that possibly people who read those retracted articles are not reading their retraction notes and are unaware of the erroneous information they share. COVID-19- related clinical trials were ~two-time times more retracted than the other clinical trials performed during the same time.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; clinical trial; mortality; pandemic; science.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of citations in Pubmed database for the retracted clinical trials about Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 interventions and their retractions notes. References: [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Altmetric index for the clinical trials and their retraction notes related to Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) interventions. (A) Altmetric index for the clinical trials. (B) Altmetric index for the retraction notes. (C) The ratio between the Altmetric index for the clinical trials and their retraction notes. We presented the Altmetric index using a Log10 scale in (A,B). It was impossible to calculate the ratio between the Altmetrics indexes for two clinical trials and their retractions notes [13,16]. The Altmetric index was obtained using the “Altmetric it!” when logged in Pubmed for each clinical trial and its retraction note. References: [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Paper retraction (causes and implications).

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Grants and funding

This research was funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo Research Foundation, grant number 2021/08437-5).

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