Gilead Sciences has reported positive data from analysis of an international cohort of patients treated with remdesivir as a potential treatment for Covid-19. The analysis reviewed 53 patients who were hospitalised with severe complications related to the novel coronavirus infection in the US, Europe, Canada and Japan. Patients received the experimental antiviral drug on an individual compassionate use basis. According to the data, most of the patients treated with remdesivir experienced clinical improvement without any new safety signals.
Health Care Workers Join the HERO Registry
The Healthcare Worker Exposure Response & Outcomes (HERO) Registry launched today, inviting U.S. healthcare workers to share clinical and life experiences in order to understand the perspectives and problems faced by those on the COVID-19 pandemic front lines. The registry will unite America’s healthcare workers into a community to facilitate rapid-cycle research, including an upcoming large study of hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness in preventing coronavirus infections in healthcare workers.
The goals of the registry are to engage healthcare workers in a research community, understand their experiences and interests, and track critical health outcomes associated with caring for patients with COVID-19, such as stress and burnout. The HERO Registry will help speed clinical studies that address unmet needs for healthcare workers, such as an upcoming study of hydroxychloroquine.
Coronavirus Pandemic Brings Hundreds of Non-COIVD-19 Clinical Trials to a Halt
As Americans have been told to stay home to prevent spreading the novel coronavirus, people enrolled in clinical trials are being notified that those trials have been suspended or won’t begin as originally planned. NPR has identified 440 studies that have been suspended since March 1 because of the outbreak. About a quarter of the studies put on hold were for cancer treatment. The studies involved as many as 200,000 people, though it’s hard to know precisely how many were active in the studies at the time they were halted.