COVID-19 update 16 April: New studies opened into COVID-19

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is now supporting 24 studies into COVID-19. 

These include seven led by the NIHR Clinical Research Network Thames Valley and South Midlands. Visit the NIHR website for full details of each study.

Recently opened studies include: 

• REMAP-CAP: drugs for pneumonia in hospitalised COVID-19 patients, such as antivirals, immune modulation drugs and corticosteroids. 

• SARS-CoV-2 infection: safety and efficacy of inhaled asthma drug SNG001 for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. 

• COP-COV: whether malaria drug chloroquine could be used to prevent and treat COVID19 infections. If effective, the drug would be a readily deployable and affordable preventive measure for high-risk individuals such as health care workers.

• DIAMONDS SEARCH v1: designing tests that can tell quickly and accurately what illness a patient has when they come to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms such as fever.

• GenOMICC: comparing DNA and cells from COVID-19 patients and healthy people to identify the genes that cause some people to be susceptible to infections and severe injury. It is hoped that this will help healthcare professionals use existing treatments better and find new medications. 

• What's the STORY: collecting blood samples from under 19s who have had COVID-19 to provide information on the numbers in this age group and the proportion likely to have immunity.

The UK’s four Chief Medical Officers and NHS England and Improvement’s’ National Medical Director have written a joint letter to all NHS Trusts asking that all efforts are made to enrol patients into these nationally-prioritised clinical trials on COVID-19.

The letter highlighted three key drug studies for trusts to support: PRINCIPLE, RECOVERY and REMAP-CAP.