The race is on

Starting and financing the national arm of a Covid-19 mega-trial

In March, the World Health Organization launched the Solidarity clinical trial, an international effort to test four potential treatments for Covid-19.This came in response to large numbers of small-scale trials would make it difficult to compare results. The core protocol of the Solidarity trial was designed so that research groups worldwide could easily take part, and more recently the WHO proposed a similar international trial for the large number of vaccine candidates in development.

John-Arne Røttingen (pictured left), chief executive of the Research Council of Norway and chair of the international steering committee behind Solidarity, says that while the WHO is coordinating the work, research groups need to apply to funders in their home countries in order to join the trial.