COVID-19 is a pandemic that does not have any cure or vaccination yet. Multiple countries and organizations are rushing to create the cure for this disease and having clinical trials planned, executed or in action as you read this.
The “Dates of the clinical trials” shows 2 time-series graphs. The graph on top shows the total number of clinical trials starting or ending in a week. The blue lines show the number of clinical trials ending, while the orange line
shows the number of clinical trials starting that week. The graph at the bottom shows the total number of active cases in a month. Most of these clinical trials have already started, but there are clinical trials registered that will
start as late as October 2020. A major chunk of these trials is forecasted to be completed by May 2021, but some trials are expected to be completed by the year 2030.
The “Current Status of the clinical trials” shows which in which phase the trials are in as of April 14, 2020, and what is their recruitment status- are they recruiting, have they already recruited the necessary talent or have just
been authorized. A lot of the clinical trials did not disclose which phases they are in, but from those that did disclose, more than 50% of them are in Phase 3 or Phase 4 i.e. the final phases of the trial.
These trials are of different types, 1/3rd of them are observational – where they observe the effects of the virus, a meager 29 of these studies are related to the diagnostic studies, while more 413 trials, 56% of the trials are
Interventional i.e. trying to find a cure or vaccine for this disease. There are more than 2.2 million registrations for the Observational studies, but less than 200K enrollments registrations for Interventional studies. There are not
a lot of enrollments to test out these interventions and hence might delay the creation of a vaccine or finding the cure.
In the interventional methods being tried out, drugs will be the one that will be widely used around the world and is the easiest to make in large quantities. One hundred fourteen drugs are being tested out with Hydroxychloroquine
being tested out in most of the trials. It is also being tested in combination with other drugs. This drug is in high demand currently, with many countries reaching out to India to lift the ban on the exportation of this chemical.
Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial drug that USA’s 45th President – Donald J. Trump, has backed and endorsed to be the miracle drug to cure Coronavirus, but there aren’t any scientists backing this up and stating there is not
enough evidence to prove that. On the back of these claims, hydroxychloroquine orders rose 260% in March.
In the current scenario and with the number of clinical trials taking place, the cure and vaccine seems to be within reach and hopefully be made available to the public by May 2021.