A landmark programme to test potential COVID-19 therapies in dozens of countries is restarting with a fresh roster of treatments — this time aimed at tempering the raging immune responses that can worsen severe disease.
The clinical trial, named Solidarity and coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), will test three drugs that dampen inflammation, an approach that has already shown promise in people hospitalized with COVID-19.
All three drugs were carefully chosen on the basis of the promise they showed in smaller clinical trials and widespread availability, says John-Arne Røttingen, scientific director of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and chair of the Solidarity trial’s international steering committee. “You need at least promising signals that some of them will work,” he says. “And we need study drugs that we can deliver in a broad group of countries.”
Source: Nature