COVID Trials Teams Honoured with Prestigious Prix Galien Award

A set of trials led by Trinity Professorial Fellow Christopher Butler have been awarded the prestigious Prix Galien Public Sector Innovation Award. 

The teams behind the PRINCIPLE and PANORAMIC clinical trials, led by Professor Butler and run in the Clinical Trials Unit at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, have been recognised for their work in conducting innovative, large-scale clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Prix Galien is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in biopharmaceutical research; it celebrates breakthrough innovations that progress our understanding in diagnosing, treating, and curing disease. The Best Public Sector Innovation award specifically recognises outstanding innovations in healthcare developed within or significantly supported by the public sector, spotlighting contributions that have profoundly impacted human health. Nominations were assessed on criteria of originality, clinical utility, knowledge contribution, impact, and independence from market factors. 

The PRINCIPLE and PANORAMIC teams were honoured for their rapid implementation of adaptive platform trials, which significantly accelerated the evaluation of potential treatments for COVID-19 in community settings. Launched in March 2020, the PRINCIPLE trial evaluated a range of existing, available medicines that could potentially be repurposed to treat COVID-19 in older people and those with underlying health conditions who are at higher risk of complications. The trial enrolled more than 11,700 participants across the UK, making it one of the world's largest trials of community-based COVID-19 treatments. The findings from PRINICPLE directly led to changes in treatment guidelines, potentially saving countless lives. 

The PANORAMIC trial, launched in December 2021, was similar to PRINCIPLE in design but was developed to assess the effectiveness of novel antiviral treatments in reducing the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and preventing hospitalisations. The trial recruited more than 29,000 participants, providing vital data to guide the use of these treatments in real-world settings. 

Professor Chris Butler, Professor of Primary Care at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and co-Chief Investigator of the PRINCIPLE and PANORAMIC trials, said: ‘We are so proud to receive this prestigious award on behalf of a nation-wide team. The PRINCIPLE and PANORAMIC trials have demonstrated the power of collaborative research between Academic Clinical Trials Units, Universities, NHS primary care, and the National Institute of Health Research Delivery Network, Health and Care Research Wales, NHS Research Scotland, and the Health and Social Care Board in Northern Ireland to generate crucial evidence from primary care to inform patient care during a global health crisis.

‘Between them these were the largest trials of therapeutics for an acute infection ever in the community: we built on our amazing NHS and the research delivery networks to enable general practices around the country to recruit patients into trials, but we also innovated by taking research directly into patients’ homes so people sick and infectious with COVID-19 could contribute without ever having to get out of bed. Most importantly, we have helped figure out who should and shouldn’t be treated with antivirals, setting new standards in trial design and delivery, and making sure we don’t make the same mistakes we made with antibiotics where we used them at scale without first doing rigorous trials in the intended use populations: who now know so much better how to the drugs away from those who won’t benefit and get them to those who will. 

‘We are really proud of the UK, the applied clinical science capability from our Universities, the NHS, and the Research Delivery Networks that made these trials possible, but especially of the 40,000 patients who contributed their experiences to become part of the solution by helping pioneer better ways of doing research in primary care and fighting the pandemic.’