Europe’s Discovery looks for drug to treat COVID-19

The results from the Discovery Drug Trials of Europe have started coming out while the death toll from COVID-19 continues to increase.

Discovery Trial

The Discovery drug trial is an add-on drug trial to WHO’s Solidarity trial. It aims to speed up the drug trials by selecting a sub-set of drugs being tested by the Solidarity project and testing it on a smaller group of participants. It was announced by France’s INSERM, a biomedical research agency.

Conduction of the Trial

The trial will involve the testing of remdesivir, lopinavir and ritonavir in combination (with or without interferon beta and hydroxychloroquine) in an ‘adaptive method’. It is to rule out ineffective drugs and may add on other drug molecules as more research results come out. It is an open trial- meaning the participants will know which drug/ modality is being used in treatment.

Participant Countries

The trial will involve around 3,200 participants from various European countries- France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and Luxembourg. All the participants are European. 800 patients are to be from France alone.