National Community COVID-19 Antiviral Trial Recruitment Begins

A clinical trial led by Professorial Fellow Chris Butler has started recruiting participants for a trial testing COVID-19 treatments for vulnerable patients.

The first-of-its-kind clinical trial will test novel antiviral COVID-19 treatments for use early on in the illness by people in the community with COVID-19 and those who are at higher risk of complications.

The Platform Adaptive trial of NOvel antiviRals for eArly treatMent of covid-19 In the Community (PANORAMIC) is a national priority trial, and will be open to participants from across the UK. The trial is led by researchers in Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Science, partnering with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and working with colleagues in several UK universities, and the NHS UK-wide.

PANORAMIC has been designed as a ‘platform clinical trial’, meaning it can rapidly evaluate several antiviral treatments over time that could help clinically vulnerable people with COVID-19 recover sooner, prevent the need for hospital admission and so ease the burden on the NHS. The UK Antiviral Taskforce has selected all treatments to be tested; the first treatment to be investigated through the trial will be molnupiravir, a COVID antiviral pill already been licensed by the MHRA.

The trial is aiming to recruit 10,600 people will be needed for testing. People can join the trial if they are aged 50 and over, aged between 18 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that make them clinically more vulnerable, or have been unwell with COVID-19 for less than five days. All participants should have recorded a positive PCR test within the past seven days.

Trinity Professorial Fellow Chris Butler is Chief Investigator and Professor of Primary Care in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He says: ‘It is early on in the illness, when people are still being cared for in the community, that treatments for COVID-19 could have their greatest benefit. So far, a lot of the research has focussed on finding out if well-known drugs can be repurposed to treat COVID-19.  This new trial will test whether exciting, new antiviral treatments that are more specific to COVID-19 help people in the community recover faster and reduce the need for treatment in hospital.’

The trial will also assess the effectiveness of the treatments on reducing shedding of the virus, as well as preventing the spread of COVID-19 by offering treatment to some household contacts of participants.

Professor Butler says: ‘All community health and social care providers will be able to link people with the trial; everyone who is eligible across the UK will be able to join PANORAMIC, and many will be able to do so from their own homes by participating online with support from their GPs and Study Team, with medicines sent directly to them at home.

‘It’s vital that as many people as possible who are at higher risk from complications of COVID-19 join the trial so we can rapidly learn if exciting new treatments really do help people get better quicker and reduce pressures on the NHS. The health services will then be able to rapidly get evidence-based treatments out to those sick with COVID and who are at greatest risk of complications.’

PANORAMIC is led by Oxford University’s Primary Care Clinical Trials Unit, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), while delivery of the trial is supported by the NIHR Clinical Research Network.