Coronavirus drugs trials must get bigger and more collaborative
14 May, 2020The pandemic has given rise to too many small and uncontrolled clinical trials.
Researchers have rallied in unprecedented ways to defeat the coronavirus pandemic. They are retooling laboratories to focus on the virus; helping with testing efforts; and, in the case of clinician–researchers, working feverishly to carry out research studies while also treating patients in overwhelmed health-care systems.
Some clinical trials — such as the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial of four potential COVID-19 therapies — are large and collaborative. They involve teams working together across many sites to test drug candidates against COVID-19. However, in the urgency to find treatments, other trials are smaller, do not always include a control group and don’t test medicines on enough patients to provide statistically meaningful results.