Clinician calls for more Londoners to join the PRINCIPLE trial

A south London GP is calling on more Londoners to join the PRINCIPLE trial to help save lives in the national effort to defeat COVID-19.

The University of Oxford led trial is looking for medicines that can help people with COVID-19 symptoms get better quickly and to stop them from needing to go to hospital. Trial participants will take part in the comfort of their own homes as PRINCIPLE is run remotely.

Anyone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, which started within the last 14 days may be eligible to join PRINCIPLE if they are aged over 65; or over 50 with an underlying health condition.

Dr Eve Thacker, from Albion Street Group Practice which is participating in the trial, believes everyone needs to play their part in helping scientists to bring this global pandemic to an end. She said:

“There are currently no specific treatments for use in the community that we know will work against COVID-19. We urgently need research to find treatments that will help people to get better quickly and to stop them from needing to go to hospital. This nationwide study could potentially help to save a lot of lives, and I’d therefore urge as many Londoners as possible to take part.”

The following treatments are currently being evaluated:

• Usual care alone
• Usual care + azithromycin, a commonly used antibiotic
• Usual care + doxycycline, a commonly used antibiotic

The treatments are randomised and taken by participants at home; people taking part in the trial are asked to keep a diary of their symptoms.

This NIHR portfolio Urgent Public Health research study is one of the UK Government’s national priority platform trials on COVID-19 treatments, and it is endorsed by all four UK Chief Medical Officers.

CRN South London’s Research Delivery Manager for Primary Care and Community Ana Guerra said: “Until an effective vaccine is developed and rolled out, finding treatments that can be given to people at home who show symptoms of COVID-19 will help people to recover more quickly, and will prevent them from becoming seriously ill and requiring hospital treatment.”

You can find out more on the Principle trial's website.