New Delhi (NVI): The researchers at the University of Oxford to begin a new study to explore the effectiveness of world’s best selling prescription medicine, Adalimumab, as a treatment for COVID-19 patients.
“The AVID-CC trial will test the anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug and will be aimed at treating people in the community, especially in care homes,” Oxford University said in a statement.
The trial will be conducted by Oxford Clinical Trials Research Unit (OCTRU), will enrol up to 750 patients from community care settings throughout the UK.
The process is funded by the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, an initiative set up by Wellcome, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Mastercard, with support from an array of public and philanthropic donors.
Meanwhile, a new research has identified some treatments that are effective for patients in hospital with COVID-19, but no effective treatments have yet been identified for those in the community care settings, many of whom may have severe symptoms.
The residents of care homes were particularly hard hit by the first wave of COVID-19 in the UK and other countries.
The statement further said, anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs have been in widespread use for over 20 years for a range of inflammatory conditions.
“Recent studies have shown that COVID-19 patients already taking anti-TNF drugs for inflammatory bowel disease and inflammatory arthritis are less likely to be admitted to hospital,” it added.
In addition to this, the same was not observed for patients taking other anti-inflammatory drugs. The availability of biosimilar versions of biological treatments has been an important step forward in driving down costs, making the anti-TNF treatment affordable and accessible if the trial is successful.
“The observed potential of anti-TNF drugs has prompted us to conduct a study in patients in community care to see whether treatment with the anti-TNF drug adalimumab reduces the progression to severe or critical disease or death in COVID-19 patients,” said Prof Duncan Richards, Professor of Clinical Therapeutics, University of Oxford.
Furthermore, the new study will be delivered by hospital at home teams around the UK. Hospital at Home is a relatively new service in which hospital-based teams reach out into the community to deliver more complex treatment interventions while avoiding the need for admission to hospital, the university said.
However, this study sits in a unique function between the existing national platform therapeutic studies PRINCIPLE (primary care) and RECOVERY (hospitals).
-RJV
