IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/drugsa/v43y2020i7d10.1007_s40264-020-00955-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A New Drug–Drug Interaction Between Hydroxychloroquine and Metformin? A Signal Detection Study

Author

Listed:
  • Jean-Louis Montastruc

    (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire)

  • Pierre-Louis Toutain

    (Université de Toulouse, INRA, ENVT
    University of London)

Abstract

Introduction Hydroxychloroquine was recently promoted in patients infected with COVID-19 infection. A recent experimental study has suggested an increased toxicity of hydroxychloroquine in association with metformin in mice. Objective The present study was undertaken to investigate the reality of this putative drug–drug interaction between hydroxychloroquine and metformin using pharmacovigilance data. Methods Using VigiBase®, the WHO pharmacovigilance database, we performed a disproportionality analysis (case/non-case study). Cases were reports of fatal outcomes with the drugs of interest and non-cases were all other reports for these drugs registered between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2019. Data with hydroxychloroquine (or metformin) alone were compared with the association hydroxychloroquine + metformin. Results are reported as ROR (reporting odds ratio) with their 95% confidence interval. Results Of the 10,771 Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSR) involving hydroxychloroquine, 52 were recorded as ‘fatal outcomes’. In comparison with hydroxychloroquine alone, hydroxychloroquine + metformin was associated with an ROR value of 57.7 (23.9–139.3). In comparison with metformin alone, hydroxychloroquine + metformin was associated with an ROR value of 6.0 (2.6–13.8). Conclusion Our study identified a signal for the association hydroxychloroquine + metformin that appears to be more at risk of fatal outcomes (particularly by completed suicides) than one of the two drugs when given alone.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean-Louis Montastruc & Pierre-Louis Toutain, 2020. "A New Drug–Drug Interaction Between Hydroxychloroquine and Metformin? A Signal Detection Study," Drug Safety, Springer, vol. 43(7), pages 657-660, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:drugsa:v:43:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1007_s40264-020-00955-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s40264-020-00955-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40264-020-00955-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40264-020-00955-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Moore, 2020. "Chloroquine for COVID-19 Infection," Drug Safety, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 393-394, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:drugsa:v:43:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1007_s40264-020-00955-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40264 .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.