Two oral medications used commonly to treat COVID-19 have also been found to be effective in lowering the risk of death and hospitalization from type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Hong Kong found that patients with type 2 diabetes and COVID-19 who took the oral medications molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) had a 29% lower risk of death or hospitalization than patients who received no treatment. The study was published May 19 in JAMA Network Open.
Using electronic medical records from Hong Kong, researchers identified 22,098 patients with type 2 diabetes and COVID-19. They analyzed the records of 3,390 non-hospitalized patients who were given molnupiravir and 2,877 who received nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in a community setting, and compared their outcomes to patients in a control group who did not receive the oral medications. The average age of the patients was between 71-77 years old.
Researchers found that both drugs were associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and/or hospitalization and in-hospital disease progression for the patients who received the treatments compared to those who did not.
“The findings of this cohort study suggest that oral antiviral use was associated with a 29% lower risk of all-cause mortality and/or hospitalization for both molnupiravir users and nirmatrelvir-ritonavir users with type 2 diabetes and SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron wave in Hong Kong,” the authors concluded. “These findings support the effectiveness of either oral antiviral drug in the outpatient setting.”
The authors noted that diabetes afflicts approximately 463 million people globally and type 2 diabetes is a common comorbidity for patients with acute COVID-19.
Researchers suggested further studies be conducted of the effective of the drugs on individuals in residential care homes and those with chronic kidney disease.
“Our results encourage future studies with larger sample sizes to clarify the effectiveness of oral antiviral agents among patients with type 2 diabetes and concomitant chronic kidney disease or diabetic complications,” the authors wrote.
