China Launches a Crush of Clinical Trials Aimed at COVID-19  | Virus World | Scoop.it
From www.wired.com - February 15, 2020 3:55 PM

The country's health care system, with its expertise in conducting clinical research, is ready to run new drug tests. But coordinating them all is another matter.  In the quarantined Chinese city of Wuhan, health workers fighting the explosive outbreak of a new coronavirus have been improvising for weeks, trying to provide whatever care they can for Covid-19 patients whose symptoms range from a cough and fever to severe pneumonia, septic shock, and organ failure. In addition to treating these symptoms with oxygen therapy, ventilators, and antibiotics, doctors there have also resorted to experimentation. With no approved treatments for any of the illnesses caused by coronaviruses, health workers have been trying everything from steroids and antibodies to drugs normally intended for HIV and influenza. But because these treatments have been dispensed on a case-by-case basis, without any rigorous, centralized tracking of results, it’s hard to know if any of them are effective against the new disease.

 

Now, researchers in China are racing to launch more systematic tests of these repurposed medicines. Since January 28, scientists have registered 19 clinical trials in China, and at least a few have already begun dosing patients. With initial results expected as early as April, the swift leap into clinical research is an important one for frontline health workers desperate for hard evidence about which therapies work best. The trick will be making sure that evidence stacks up. “When you have a treatment, you can measure different things in a patient,” said Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s assistant director general of health systems and innovation, at a press conference Wednesday. “What is important if you want to compare different treatments is that everybody measures the same.” Her remarks came at the conclusion of a two-day summit convened by the WHO that brought together major funders and more than 300 scientists to define the most pressing research priorities of the current outbreak.

 

For Chinese readers, the list of ongoing clinical  is available at the  Chinese Clinical Trial Registry

For English readers see this Registry in English