Another RCT showing fluvoxamine was no better than placebo at reducing recovery time in mild and moderate COVID. Shame. Some early data suggested this antidepressant might be a cheap treatment option for COVID, but more robust data hasn't been able to replicate the earlier findings.
This was part of the ACTIV-6 trials. Ivermectin was also tested in ACTIV-6 with similarly poor results.
An accompanying editorial has a good discussion of the mixed results in context. One key difference is that earlier trials showing a benefit used composite and proxy outcomes that have some limitations compared to more direct patient outcomes. Importantly secondary outcomes that used more direct outcomes like viral clearance did not show a benefit in those trials, suggesting the observed benefits were not substantive.
The changing nature of the virus and of population immunity may have also affected the results such that fluvoxamine had real benefits earlier in the pandemic that are limited now. A good reminder to monitor the effectiveness of approved coronavirus antiviral therapies.
Not a huge loss given that we have better treatments for COVID these days, but still it would have been a nice tool.