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The newest clinical trial developments for COVID-19

MindMate Staff

The year 2020 has been influenced by Covid-19 for several months now. The extreme increase of infected people worldwide and the number of patients that lost their lives is calling for a cure and/or a vaccine and researchers are still working hard to find a solution sooner rather than later. There are currently 133 active clinical trials worldwide that are testing a variety of different drugs, medical devices, and vaccines and around 1300 research studies that are currently recruiting volunteers to start their research efforts as soon as possible. 


With all this research going on, it can get confusing as to what the most promising developments are and what that means for us all, living in this pandemic right now? We have collected the newest developments in Covid-19 research for you. 


Solidarity trial aimed at assessing the most promising treatments


The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched its Solidarity trial, which is an international clinical trial aimed to help find an effective treatment for Covid-19. The trial compares options against standard of care to determine their effectiveness against the virus. The trial is working with patients from all over the world in order to discover rapidly, which of the drugs currently tested are actually slowing the virus down or improving the overall survival rate. This also allows for adding new drugs to the trial as they are developed. The WHO is, however, warning to recommend or administer unproven treatments until there is enough evidence of these drugs being safe and actually working. 


World’s biggest clinical trial administered by the United Kingdom


The UK has administered the world’s biggest clinical trial, called the Recovery trial, with works with more than 11,000 patients. One drug that has been tested within the trial setting is dexamethasone and has shown promising results for critically ill people according to the WHO. The drug has shown to reducing mortality for patients on ventilators by one third and for patients requiring only oxygen, mortality was cut by about one fifth. Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid used in a wide range of conditions for its anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects. 


Blood plasma infusions for Covid-19 treatment tested


Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine together with UC San Diego Health have currently launched a new clinical trial to determine the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma (CP) to prevent Covid-19 after known exposure to the virus. This trial is part of a greater national effort approved by the FDA. The therapy tested involves infusing patients with antibodies extracted from the blood of donors who have already recovered from the virus. The hope is that patients will get a boost to their immune system, which may shorten the length of the disease and the severity. This national trial has been coordinated by Johns Hopkins University and sponsored by the National Institutes of Health through the United States Department of Defense.


Making a difference for medical innovation


Now more than ever, we see how essential clinical research is in order to drive clinical innovation and to save the lives of millions of people. Do you want to be part of medical history and make a difference for your community? Clinical trials need volunteers in order to test new treatments effectively and bring them to the mass market. If you want to learn more about clinical trials, the benefits, and risks and see if this would be something for you, please visit our clinical trial education website here.

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