Clinical Trials to Resume With Rollout of COVID Vaccines

With a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases due to increasing vaccinations in the US and the UK, GlobalData expects clinical trials to resume more quickly in these countries.

Clinical trials may resume more quickly in the US and the UK due to increasing vaccinations, expects GlobalData.

“Since early March 2020, more than 500 companies have publicly announced disruptions to their planned and ongoing clinical trials due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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‘Active cases of COVID-19 worldwide are decreasing steadily and this has led to a very slight, steady increase in clinical trial activity.’

However, with the global rollout of three main COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Oxford/AstraZeneca, and Moderna, and the latest approval for Johnson & Johnson, active cases of COVID-19 worldwide are decreasing steadily and this has led to a very slight, steady increase in clinical trial activity.”

The number of clinical trials that resumed has increased to 955 as of February 22, 2021. Of these, 68.3% are recruiting participants at present, 14.0% have completed recruitment but are still ongoing, and 0.4% of trials have yet to start recruiting subjects.

Around 70.2% trials were resumed in the US, followed by the UK at 9.3%, Spain at 7.0%, France at 6.9%, and Germany at 6.5%.

Nair continues: “Initially, the general trend showed a gradual increase in the overall percentage of trials for each trial status, the biggest of which has been seen in ongoing, recruiting trials and ongoing, not recruiting trials.

However, between January 25 and February 22, ongoing, recruiting trials decreased further from 71.9% to 68.3%, and completed trials increased from 12.8% to 14.0%.”

Trial disruptions are attributed to patient safety measures, strict lockdown requirements, social distancing procedures, and the high demand on medical professionals to treat COVID-19 patients.

Most of the companies have delayed the beginning of already scheculed trials or withdrawn them completely, and others have suspended enrollment in their ongoing trials or terminated the trials altogether.

Source-Medindia