The medication is being used in clinical trials to treat patients with SARS-CoV-2[5] and there are published results in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.[6]
So far, two non-peer reviewed research articles have been published. One study at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, showed evidence of a direct anti-viral effect of Interferon alpha against novel Coronavirus in vitro. The study demonstrated around 10,000 fold reduction in the quantity of virus that was pre-treated with Interferon alpha 48 hours earlier. A second study by universities in China, Australia and Canada analysed 77 moderate COVID-19 subjects in Wuhan and observed that those who received Interferon alpha-2b showed a significant reduction in the duration of virus shedding period and even in levels of the inflammatory cytokine, IL-6. [7][8]
This drug is also used off-label in cats and dogs, both by injection and orally.[9] The cross-species nature of IFN-α allow it to work in non-human animals,[10] but the period of usefulness is limited by the production of antibodies against this foreign protein.[9]
^Weissmann C (2001). "Recombinant interferon - the 20th anniversary". In Buckel P (ed.). Recombinant Protein Drugs. Milestones in Drug Therapy. Basel: Birkhäuser. pp. 3–41. doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-8346-7_1. ISBN978-3-0348-8346-7.
^Mantei N, Schwarzstein M, Streuli M, Panem S, Nagata S, Weissmann C (June 1980). "The nucleotide sequence of a cloned human leukocyte interferon cDNA". Gene. 10 (1): 1–10. doi:10.1016/0378-1119(80)90137-7. PMID6157600.