LIVERPOOL, England, 20 April 2021 — The University of Liverpool, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the NIHR Southampton Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Southampton today announced the first-ever patient dosed in the latest trial of potential new treatments for SARS-CoV-2 as part of the UK’s COVID-19 drug testing platform, AGILE.
People across the south are being asked to play their part in helping vital research into new COVID-19 treatments.
A ground-breaking clinical trial platform being led by researchers at the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit is now recruiting patients through the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility within the General Hospital.
The AGILE drug testing platform has received a multi-million pound award from the UK government’s Department of Health and Social Care to fast track the clinical trials of innovative treatments against COVID-19.
GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology have joined forces with researchers from the Universities of Liverpool and Southampton, who are leading an accelerated early phase trials platform to test new treatments for COVID-19. The two monoclonal antibody therapies, VIR-7831 and VIR-7832, will be given to patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 and have mild or moderate symptoms. Pre-clinical studies have already shown that these antibody therapies have promising results in combatting coronavirus infections. The hope is that, by conducting early phase human trials, the researchers will discover whether they could be an effective tool for treating patients with the COVID-19 in the future.
An experimental drug that could prevent Covid-19 patients from becoming seriously ill is being trialled in England.
The BBC’s Fergus Walsh spoke to two volunteers who are taking part in the trial at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
Take a look at this case study from @Medidata who are supporting @SouthamptonCTU with the AGILE clinical trial platform #COVID19 #clinicaltrials
The Liverpool Drug Interactions website team developed a freely available drug interactions resource to provide information on the likelihood of interactions between the experimental agents used for the treatment of COVID-19 and commonly prescribed co-medications.
Find out more here.