April 2020 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 10
// RESEARCH //
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have awarded £10.5 million of funding to six new research projects on developing and testing vaccines and therapies for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
One of the projects will investigate potential vaccines and could begin as early as June, while another aims to develop manufacturing processes to produce a vaccine at a million-dose scale to ensure availability as soon as possible.
A third progamme will assess if existing drugs can be immediately re-purposed to help people hospitalised with COVID-19, and another project will collect data on COVID-19 patients to improve our knowledge of the disease and best treatment strategies.
“In the midst of a global health emergency the UK is using all its extensive research expertise to quickly develop new vaccines to target this international threat,” said health secretary Matt Hancock. “This investment will speed up globally recognised vaccine development capabilities and help us find a new defence against this disease.”
Meanwhile, the first patients have already been enrolled in Oxford University’s trial to assess the effects of potential drug treatments for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
The researchers are hoping to determine whether any therapies could offer a benefit to patients in light of the current outbreak of the virus for which there is no specifically approved treatment.
Treatments included in The Randomised Evaluation of COVid-19 thERapY (RECOVERY) trial are lopinavir-ritonavir, normally used to treat HIV, and the steroid dexamethasone, which is used in a wide range of conditions to reduce inflammation.
Adults who have tested positive for COVID-19 in NHS hospitals, and who have not been excluded for medical reasons, will be given the chance to join the trial, in which they will randomly receive one of the two drugs or no additional medication.
“In this way we can rapidly assess the value of potential treatments for COVID-19 and provide reliable information on the best ways to treat patients with this disease,” noted Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, and deputy chief investigator.
The UK Government is streaming an extra £12 million into the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) in 2020/21 for research into preventable diseases.
The additional funding will allow the Institute to improve understanding of how to reduce the burden of preventable illness and spread the distribution of health and care research expertise across the country.
The new investment, which will be provided through the NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC), will be directed particularly towards Local Authorities, helping them grow and support their research capabilities so they can work further to solve a range of major preventable health challenges.
“We need to do more to fund broader, multidisciplinary prevention research which investigates the range of biological, behavioural, social and environmental causes of these diseases if we are going to tackle them effectively,” said Dr Louise Wood, director of science, research and evidence at the Department of Health and Social Care and co-lead of the NIHR.
Heart disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and cancer are all linked to preventable causes and contribute to slowing improvements in life expectancy, and regional and socio-economic inequalities in health outcomes.