October 10, 2014

expert reaction to letter about randomised control trials for Ebola treatments

A group of experts have signed a letter in the Lancet calling for an alternative to randomised control trials to be used when testing treatments for Ebola.

Prof Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology, University of Nottingham, said:

“Whilst the normal drug development process would involve randomised controlled trials, I think that there is a case for introducing experimental drugs in this Ebolavirus outbreak, but only if there is good monitoring to determine how safe and effective the intervention is.

“Historical case outcomes provide an ideal control group by which you can determine effectiveness and to a certain degree serious adverse effects.”

Prof Martin Hibberd, Professor of Emerging Infectious Disease, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:

“While fully supporting this team’s comment and agreeing that there is an urgent need to be flexible on a trial format, we should be wary about taking anecdotal evidence. Flexibility in study design, does not mean no design and, as they mention, we should be using some type of established procedure for evaluating any new therapy’s performance.”

Randomised controlled trials for Ebola: practical and ethical issues’ signed by Clement Adebamowo et al., published in the Lancet on Friday 10 October 2014.

Declared interests

None declared