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Clinical Trials for COVID‐19: Can we Better Use the Short Window of Opportunity?
Author(s) -
Eichler HansGeorg,
Cavaleri Marco,
Enzmann Harald,
Scotti Francesca,
Sepodes Bruno,
Sweeney Fergus,
Vamvakas Spiros,
Rasi Guido
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1002/cpt.1891
Subject(s) - clinical trial , window of opportunity , observational study , covid-19 , pandemic , psychological intervention , intensive care medicine , medicine , disease , computer science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , psychiatry , virology , pathology , real time computing , outbreak
The scientific community has risen to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) challenge, coming up with an impressive list of candidate drugs and vaccines targeting an array of pharmacological and immunological mechanisms. Yet, generating clinical evidence of efficacy and safety of these candidate treatments may be frustrated by the absence of comprehensive trial coordination mechanisms. Many small stand‐alone trials and observational studies of single‐agent interventions are currently running or in planning; many of these will likely not deliver robust results that could support regulatory and patient‐level treatment decisions. In this paper, we discuss actions that all stakeholders in the clinical trial ecosystem need to take to ensure that the window of opportunity during this pandemic will not shut, both for patients in need of treatment and for researchers to conduct decision‐relevant clinical trials.