On Apr. 29, 2020, researchers at Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine announced that they had begun testing the drug hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19, as part of a nationwide trial sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

The new multicenter trial was called ORCHID, which stands for Outcomes Related to COVID-19 Treated with Hydroxychloroquine among Inpatients with Symptomatic Disease. The trial enrolled more than 500 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 who have symptoms of respiratory infection, such as cough, fever, shortness of breath, or sore throat. Participants were randomized to receive either hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), or placebo plus standard clinical care, for five days; all patients were evaluated on day 15.

ORCHID is being conducted by the Prevention and Early Treatment of Acute Lung Injury (PETAL) Clinical Trials Network of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. Patients will be recruited at 44 centers around the country. The  Montefiore-Einstein center is led by Michelle Gong, M.D., M.S., professor of medicine and of epidemiology & population health, and chief of the divisions of pulmonary medicine and of critical care at Einstein and Montefiore. Dr. Aboodi is a co-investigator.

The story of hydroxychloroquine begins with a natural pharmaceutical called quinine. Legend has it that native Indians in the Andean jungles of South America discovered that bitter-tasting water around quina-quina trees had potent anti-fever properties. The source of this miracle cure was traced to the tree’s bark; its active ingredient, quinine, was isolated by French chemists in 1820 and became a standard treatment for intermittent fever.

In 1934, scientists at Bayer in Germany made a synthetic substitute for quine called chloroquine. It has been used for decades as a treatment for malaria, despite its many side effects. The similar drug hydroxychloroquine was developed during the Second World War as a safer alternative. In recent years, hydroxychloroquine has been approved for treating two chronic autoimmune disorders, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.