Protocols in Place for Covid-19 Studies

With more people falling victim to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), the need for progression from research and discovery into possible clinical studies remains urgent. Following the initial response to the novel coronavirus emergency, the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) activated its Clinical Characterisation Protocol (CCP) for emerging infections. This has enabled the CCP in England and Scotland, led by Dr Kenneth Baillie at the University of Edinburgh to progress developments that meet an ethically approved framework for enrolling patients to a clinical study which can offer new insights into this emerging global threat.

The CCP facilitates the collection of standardised clinical data and samples on patients hospitalised with suspected or confirmed infection with novel coronavirus and will inform the outbreak response and patient care, not just in the UK but internationally. With novel coronavirus patients now identified in the UK, the UK health research community is well-prepared to advance our understanding of this disease.

Calum Semple, Professor of Outbreak Medicine at the University of Liverpool and Consultant at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is Chief Investigator for the CCP in England and Scotland: “This is an important part of a global effort to understand this new disease which has Pandemic potential. Scientific competition has been set aside in the interests of humanity.”

The CCP study is sponsored by the University of Oxford which also hosts ISARIC’s Global Support Centre. As a global federation of clinical research networks ISARIC’s members have developed the CCP over a number of years and many international centres were already well-prepared for an outbreak. Its mission is to generate and disseminate clinical research evidence for outbreak-prone infectious diseases, whenever and wherever they occur. ISARIC is funded by Wellcome, the UK Department for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.