Various health care sectors are working on research studies to combat the novel coronavirus. When scrolling through social media or listening to the news, you can learn about certain medications, vitamins, therapies, and other interventions that can help us manage the disease. A disease that has disrupted the lives and livelihoods of many people from near and far countries. 

What are clinical trials?

Clinical trials are types of scientific research that involve the participation of humans to assess or evaluate the effectiveness of certain medications, medical machinery, and health care interventions. The clinical trial participants may either be volunteers or may receive payment for their involvement in the study. 

A clinical trial is successful when it can claim that a certain treatment is effective and will create a breakthrough in the medical field. However, a clinical trial can also result in a negative result. This means that the treatment that they are studying does not seem to be effective or is substandard. Additionally, there are findings that are inconclusive (more research should be done) or non-inferior wherein the treatment is promising and although it gives the desired effect, it is equivalent to standard treatment.

Clinical Trials For Coronavirus

According to clinicaltrials.gov, there are 405 clinical trials in progress for COVID-19. These trials include convalescent plasma (CCP) transfusion, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), the drug Duvelisib, and anticoagulation in critically ill patients. These trials are all currently in progress and have not yielded any results so far. However, it is promising that we have hundreds of trials for medicines, therapies, and treatments underway. 

Types of Clinical Trials

There are two types of clinical trials, the first one is the observational type. During an observational trial, no experiments are completed and the researchers will study the participants. The participants are observed without manipulating any variable. An example of this type of trial would be understanding the effects of isolated patients or those who are wearing masks. 

Meanwhile, interventional trials have far more involvement from the researchers. This trial will divide participants into groups, and give a particular treatment or intervention to one group, and then compare it with another group who did not receive it. An example is one group being given a drug to take, and another group does not receive the drug. 

Many of the interventional trials are focused on finding treatments for those who are sick with the virus. China is currently running studies to monitor the effects of chloroquine, lopinavir, favipiravir, oseltamivir, azvudine, baloxavir marboxil. In addition to combinations like traizavirin and basic treatment or tranilast and conventional treatment. 

Medications like anti-angiogenic, anti-microbial, anti-malarial, and antioxidants drugs are being tested to see if they could be repurposed into killing the virus. Immunosuppressants, modulators of the immune system, removal of cytokines, and therapies based on plasma, are also being studied to check if they are effective in curing the illness or relieving symptoms of it. 

Some clinical trials are purely focused on vaccines, anti-malarial drugs, anti-viral medications, and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect those who have not been infected. These studies also aim to prevent the further spread of the disease as most of the population has not been exposed to the virus from previous quarantines and lockdowns.