Clinical trials of disease stages in COVID 19: complicated and often misinterpreted

Jay J H Park,Eric H Decloedt,Craig R Rayner,Mark Cotton,Edward J Mills

doi:10.1016/s2214-109x(20)30365-x

Abstract

As of July 28, 2020, 1840 clinical trials were registered globally, with 1001 clinical trials recruiting patients for COVID-19 management.1 Despite this large number, only 30 trials have been published as peer-reviewed or preprint publications.2 Media reports and prepublications on medRxiv and bioRxiv represent the most frequent mechanism for data sharing, with wide public reach and usually with little detail. However, with inadequate details on the trials and only superficial scrutiny by the public and scientific decision makers, the consequences have had disastrous effects on other clinical trial funding, permissions, recruitment, and interpretation.

Highlights

As of July 28, 2020, 1840 clinical trials were registered globally, with 1001 clinical trials recruiting patients for COVID-19 management.[1]
More clinical stages for COVID-19 arguably exist if looking at subgroup manifestations of COVID-19
Despite the overwhelmingly large number of trials being done for COVID-19, it is important to note that the majority of these trials (1134 [61·6%] of 1840) involve patients who have been admitted to hospital

Summary

Introduction

As of July 28, 2020, 1840 clinical trials were registered globally, with 1001 clinical trials recruiting patients for COVID-19 management.[1]. COVID-19 clinical trials target at least five stages of the disease process (appendix): pre-exposure prophylaxis, post-exposure prophylaxis, outpatient treatment, hospital admission, and late-stage critical care (admission to an intensive care unit).

Results

Conclusion