“Lianhua Qingwen capsules conferred preventive effects on those exposed to COVID-19”, claimed an article titled “Efficacy and Safety of Lianhuaqingwen Capsules for the Prevention of Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Prospective Open-Label Controlled Trial”, published November in the journal of Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

According to the article, this is the first clinical trial that demonstrates the safety and efficacy of LH capsules in subjects who have had close contact with confirmed COVID-19 patients. Overall, treatment with LH capsules for 14 days resulted in a significantly lower rate of positive nucleic acid tests from nasal and pharyngeal swabs during the quarantine medical observation period. In addition, LH capsules had a favorable safety profile for the prevention of COVID-19.

“We included 1976 patients, including 1101 in the treatment group and 875 in the control group. The rate of positive nucleic acid tests in the treatment group was significantly lower than that in the control group (0.27 % vs. 1.14%)”, the article said.

As claimed by the article, Lianhua Qingwen, a TCM developed and produced by Yiling Pharmaceutical, was used for the treatment of influenza during the H1N1 flu outbreak. In a study of prophylactic drugs among 20,553 close contacts and the people around them in Langfang, Hebei Province, China, the incidence rate of symptoms in the LH group was 1.2%, while that of participants who took other drugs was 6.8%, and that of those who did not use drugs was 8.8%, indicating that LH has a good prophylactic effect. The LH has also shown good clinical efficacy for the treatment of COVID-19, the illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. LH was included in the Diagnosis and Treatment Programs for COVID-19 (from the fourth to eighth editions) formulated by the National Health Commission of China, which was published with the intention of preventing and treating viral influenza.