March 19, 2020

expert comments about a British COVID-19 patient taking part in a clinical trial of a drug treatment

During the No10 press conference, Boris Johnson mentioned that a British COVID-19 patient is taking part in a clinical trial of a drug treatment.

Dr Rupert Beale, Group Leader, Cell Biology of Infection Laboratory, Francis Crick Institute, said:

“It is very welcome that patients in the UK are beginning to be enrolled in clinical trials.  There are several promising drug treatments which could make an important difference to patients, but we need to test them properly to make sure there is a real benefit.  Lots of drug trials are taking place across the world, including in China, the US and Italy.  It will be crucial that if any drug treatment shows a definite benefit we can make it available to patients immediately, so any legal issues or difficulties with drug manufacture must be sorted out as soon as possible.”

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

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