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WHO launches global megatrial of the four most promising coronavirus treatments

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  1. patience_limited
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    From the article: I'm kind of curious as to why camostat mesylate [PDF warning], which is indicated in the article's diagram, isn't included. It's an approved medication in Japan, and stockpiled...

    From the article:

    Enrolling subjects in SOLIDARITY will be easy. When a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19 is deemed eligible, the physician can enter the patient’s data into a WHO website, including any underlying condition that could change the course of the disease, such as diabetes or HIV infection. The participant has to sign an informed consent form that is scanned and sent to WHO electronically. After the physician states which drugs are available at his or her hospital, the website will randomize the patient to one of the drugs available or to the local standard care for COVID-19.

    “After that, no more measurements or documentation are required,” says Ana Maria Henao Restrepo, a medical officer at WHO’s Department of Immunization Vaccines and Biologicals. Physicians will record the day the patient left the hospital or died, the duration of the hospital stay, and whether the patient required oxygen or ventilation, she says. “That’s all.”

    The design is not double-blind, the gold standard in medical research, so there could be placebo effects from patients knowing they received a candidate drug. But WHO says it had to balance scientific rigor against speed. The idea for SOLIDARITY came up less than 2 weeks ago, Henao Restrepo says, and the agency hopes to have supporting documentation and data management centers set up next week. “We are doing this in record time,” she says.

    I'm kind of curious as to why camostat mesylate [PDF warning], which is indicated in the article's diagram, isn't included. It's an approved medication in Japan, and stockpiled there for influenza outbreaks.