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. 2020 Sep:125:170-178.
doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2020.06.005. Epub 2020 Jun 8.

A large number of COVID-19 interventional clinical trials were registered soon after the pandemic onset: a descriptive analysis

Ali A Nasrallah  1 , Sarah H Farran  1 , Zainab A Nasrallah  1 , Mohamad A Chahrour  1 , Hamza A Salhab  2 , Mohamad Y Fares  3 , Hussein H Khachfe  2 , Elie A Akl  4
Affiliations

A large number of COVID-19 interventional clinical trials were registered soon after the pandemic onset: a descriptive analysis

Ali A Nasrallah et al. J Clin Epidemiol. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Background and objective: There is a pressing need for evidence-based interventions to address the devastating clinical and public health effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The number of registered trials related to COVID-19 is increasing by the day. The objective of this study was to describe the characteristics of the currently registered interventional clinical trials related to COVID-19.

Methods: We searched the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform on May 15th, 2020. We included any entry that is related to COVID-19. We abstracted and then descriptively analyzed the following characteristics of the registered trials: study design, status, phase, primary endpoints, experimental interventions, and geographic location among other qualifiers.

Results: We identified 1,308 eligible registered trials. Most trials were registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (n = 703; 53.7%) and the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (n = 291; 22.2%). The number of participants to be enrolled across these trials was 734,657, with a median of 110 participants per trial. The most commonly studied intervention category was pharmacologic (n = 763; 58.3%), with antiparasitic medications being the most common subcategory. Although over half of the trials were already recruiting, we identified published peer-reviewed results for only 8 of those trials.

Conclusion: There is a relatively large number of registered trials but with very few results published so far. Although our findings suggest an appropriate initial response by the research community, the real challenge will be to get these trials completed, published, and translated into practice and policy.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clinical trials; Novel coronavirus disease; Trial characteristics; Trial registration.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The time distributions of the cumulative number of registered trials (blue curve) and of the cumulative number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 (orange curve); January 1st, 2020, to May 15th, 2020. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of studies by date of registration in source registries (N = 1,301).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Distribution of studies by the number of participants (N = 1,240).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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