Use of repurposed and adjuvant drugs in hospital patients with covid-19: multinational network cohort study

Objective: To investigate the use of repurposed and adjuvant drugs in patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 across three continents. Design: Multinational network cohort study. Setting: Hospital electronic health records from the United States, Spain, and China, and nationwide claims data from South Korea. Participants: 303 264 patients admitted to hospital with covid-19 from January 2020 to December 2020. Main outcome measures: Prescriptions or dispensations of any drug on or 30 days after the date of hospital admission for covid-19. Results: Of the 303 264 patients included, 290 131 were from the US, 7599 from South Korea, 5230 from Spain, and 304 from China. 3455 drugs were identified. Common repurposed drugs were hydroxychloroquine (used in from <5 (<2%) patients in China to 2165 (85.1%) in Spain), azithromycin (from 15 (4.9%) in China to 1473 (57.9%) in Spain), combined lopinavir and ritonavir (from 156 (