Covid-19 infection caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-COV-2 continues to be a major global health challenge. Till date, no drug has been approved for the treatment of this infection. A number of medications have been proposed and there are ongoing clinical trials around the world to find a suitable treatment. A recent randomised control trial compared lopinavir/ritonavir with standard care among 199 patients with severe Covid-19 infection and concluded that there was no significant reduction in mortality rate with lopinavir/ritonavir. However, there are a few important lessons which may be learnt from the study apart from the statistical reduction in mortality rate. There was a numerical reduction in mortality rate, less intensive care unit stay and less complications in the lopinavir-ritonavir group. This article points out some of those important lessons with some suggestions for future clinical trials.

由新型冠状病毒SARS-COV-2引起的Covid-19感染仍然是全球主要的健康挑战。到目前为止，还没有批准用于治疗这种感染的药物。已经提出了许多药物，并且世界各地正在进行正在进行的临床试验以找到合适的治疗方法。最近的一项随机对照试验在199名严重Covid-19严重感染的患者中比较了lopinavir / ritonavir和标准护理的情况，得出的结论是lopinavir / ritonavir的死亡率没有显着降低。但是，除了统计上的死亡率降低以外，还可以从该研究中学到一些重要的经验教训。洛匹那韦-利托那韦组的死亡率降低了，重症监护病房减少了，并发症减少了。