Daniel D Murray1, Abdel G Babiker2, Jason V Baker3,4, Christina E Barkauskas5, Samuel M Brown6,7, Christina C Chang8, Victoria J Davey9, Annetine C Gelijns10, Adit A Ginde11, Birgit Grund12, Elizabeth Higgs13, Fleur Hudson2, Virginia L Kan14,15, H Clifford Lane13, Thomas A Murray12, Roger Paredes16, Mahesh Kb Parmar2, Sarah Pett2,17, Andrew N Phillips1,17, Mark N Polizzotto8,18, Cavan Reilly12, Uriel Sandkovsky19, Shweta Sharma12, Marc Teitelbaum20, B Taylor Thompson21,22, Barnaby E Young23,24,25, James D Neaton12, Jens D Lundgren1. 1. CHIP Centre of Excellence for Health, Immunity, and Infections, Department of Infectious Diseases, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. 2. Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology, University College London, London, UK. 3. Hennepin Healthcare Research Institute, Minneapolis, MN, USA. 4. Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. 5. Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. 6. Intermountain Medical Center, Murray, UT, USA. 7. University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. 8. The Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. 9. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC, USA. 10. Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA. 11. Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO, USA. 12. Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. 13. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, MD, USA. 14. Veteran Affairs Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA. 15. School of Medicine & Health Sciences, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA. 16. Infectious Diseases Department & IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Catalonia, Spain. 17. Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK. 18. St Vincent's Hospital Sydney, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia. 19. Division of Infectious Diseases, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA. 20. Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick, MD, USA. 21. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. 22. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. 23. National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore. 24. Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore. 25. Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Safe and effective therapies for COVID-19 are urgently needed. In order to meet this need, the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines public-private partnership initiated the Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19. Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 is a multi-arm, multi-stage platform master protocol, which facilitates the rapid evaluation of the safety and efficacy of novel candidate antiviral therapeutic agents for adults hospitalized with COVID-19. Five agents have so far entered the protocol, with rapid answers already provided for three of these. Other agents are expected to enter the protocol throughout 2021. This protocol contains a number of key design and implementation features that, along with challenges faced by the protocol team, are presented and discussed. METHODS: Three clinical trial networks, encompassing a global network of clinical sites, participated in the protocol development and implementation. Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 utilizes a multi-arm, multi-stage design with an agile and robust approach to futility and safety evaluation at 300 patients enrolled, with subsequent expansion to full sample size and an expanded target population if the agent shows an acceptable safety profile and evidence of efficacy. Rapid recruitment to multiple agents is enabled through the sharing of placebo, the confining of agent-specific information to protocol appendices, and modular consent forms. In collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration, a thorough safety data collection and Data and Safety Monitoring Board schedule was developed for the study of potential therapeutic agents with limited in-human data in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. RESULTS: As of 8 August 2021, five agents have entered the Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 master protocol and a total of 1909 participants have been randomized to one of these agents or matching placebo. There were a number of challenges faced by the study team that needed to be overcome in order to successfully implement Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 across a global network of sites. These included ensuring drug supply and reliable recruitment allowing for changing infection rates across the global network of sites, the need to balance the collection of data and samples without overburdening clinical staff and obtaining regulatory approvals across a global network of sites. CONCLUSION: Through a robust multi-network partnership, the Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 protocol has been successfully used across a global network of sites for rapid generation of efficacy data on multiple novel antiviral agents. The protocol design and implementation features used in this protocol, and the approaches to address challenges, will have broader applicability. Mechanisms to facilitate improved communication and harmonization among country-specific regulatory bodies are required to achieve the full potential of this approach in dealing with a global outbreak.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: Safe and effective therapies for COVID-19 are urgently needed. In order to meet this need, the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines public-private partnership initiated the Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19. Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 is a multi-arm, multi-stage platform master protocol, which facilitates the rapid evaluation of the safety and efficacy of novel candidate antiviral therapeutic agents for adults hospitalized with COVID-19. Five agents have so far entered the protocol, with rapid answers already provided for three of these. Other agents are expected to enter the protocol throughout 2021. This protocol contains a number of key design and implementation features that, along with challenges faced by the protocol team, are presented and discussed. METHODS: Three clinical trial networks, encompassing a global network of clinical sites, participated in the protocol development and implementation. Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 utilizes a multi-arm, multi-stage design with an agile and robust approach to futility and safety evaluation at 300 patients enrolled, with subsequent expansion to full sample size and an expanded target population if the agent shows an acceptable safety profile and evidence of efficacy. Rapid recruitment to multiple agents is enabled through the sharing of placebo, the confining of agent-specific information to protocol appendices, and modular consent forms. In collaboration with the Food and Drug Administration, a thorough safety data collection and Data and Safety Monitoring Board schedule was developed for the study of potential therapeutic agents with limited in-human data in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. RESULTS: As of 8 August 2021, five agents have entered the Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 master protocol and a total of 1909 participants have been randomized to one of these agents or matching placebo. There were a number of challenges faced by the study team that needed to be overcome in order to successfully implement Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 across a global network of sites. These included ensuring drug supply and reliable recruitment allowing for changing infection rates across the global network of sites, the need to balance the collection of data and samples without overburdening clinical staff and obtaining regulatory approvals across a global network of sites. CONCLUSION: Through a robust multi-network partnership, the Therapeutics for Inpatients with COVID-19 protocol has been successfully used across a global network of sites for rapid generation of efficacy data on multiple novel antiviral agents. The protocol design and implementation features used in this protocol, and the approaches to address challenges, will have broader applicability. Mechanisms to facilitate improved communication and harmonization among country-specific regulatory bodies are required to achieve the full potential of this approach in dealing with a global outbreak.
Authors: Lori E Dodd; Dean Follmann; Jing Wang; Franz Koenig; Lisa L Korn; Christian Schoergenhofer; Michael Proschan; Sally Hunsberger; Tyler Bonnett; Mat Makowski; Drifa Belhadi; Yeming Wang; Bin Cao; France Mentre; Thomas Jaki Journal: Clin Trials Date: 2020-07-16 Impact factor: 2.486
Authors: John H Beigel; Kay M Tomashek; Lori E Dodd; Aneesh K Mehta; Barry S Zingman; Andre C Kalil; Elizabeth Hohmann; Helen Y Chu; Annie Luetkemeyer; Susan Kline; Diego Lopez de Castilla; Robert W Finberg; Kerry Dierberg; Victor Tapson; Lanny Hsieh; Thomas F Patterson; Roger Paredes; Daniel A Sweeney; William R Short; Giota Touloumi; David Chien Lye; Norio Ohmagari; Myoung-Don Oh; Guillermo M Ruiz-Palacios; Thomas Benfield; Gerd Fätkenheuer; Mark G Kortepeter; Robert L Atmar; C Buddy Creech; Jens Lundgren; Abdel G Babiker; Sarah Pett; James D Neaton; Timothy H Burgess; Tyler Bonnett; Michelle Green; Mat Makowski; Anu Osinusi; Seema Nayak; H Clifford Lane Journal: N Engl J Med Date: 2020-10-08 Impact factor: 91.245
Authors: T Y M Leung; A Y L Chan; E W Chan; V K Y Chan; C S L Chui; B J Cowling; L Gao; M Q Ge; I F N Hung; M S M Ip; P Ip; K K Lau; C S Lau; L K W Lau; W K Leung; X Li; H Luo; K K C Man; V W S Ng; C W Siu; E Y F Wan; Y K Wing; C S M Wong; K H T Wong; I C K Wong Journal: Emerg Microbes Infect Date: 2020-12 Impact factor: 7.163
Authors: Jens D Lundgren; Birgit Grund; Christina E Barkauskas; Thomas L Holland; Robert L Gottlieb; Uriel Sandkovsky; Samuel M Brown; Kirk U Knowlton; Wesley H Self; D Clark Files; Mamta K Jain; Thomas Benfield; Michael E Bowdish; Bradley G Leshnower; Jason V Baker; Jens-Ulrik Jensen; Edward M Gardner; Adit A Ginde; Estelle S Harris; Isik S Johansen; Norman Markowitz; Michael A Matthay; Lars Østergaard; Christina C Chang; Victoria J Davey; Anna Goodman; Elizabeth S Higgs; Daniel D Murray; Thomas A Murray; Roger Paredes; Mahesh K B Parmar; Andrew N Phillips; Cavan Reilly; Shweta Sharma; Robin L Dewar; Marc Teitelbaum; Deborah Wentworth; Huyen Cao; Paul Klekotka; Abdel G Babiker; Annetine C Gelijns; Virginia L Kan; Mark N Polizzotto; B Taylor Thompson; H Clifford Lane; James D Neaton Journal: N Engl J Med Date: 2020-12-22 Impact factor: 91.245
Authors: Matthew R Sydes; Mahesh K B Parmar; Nicholas D James; Noel W Clarke; David P Dearnaley; Malcolm D Mason; Rachel C Morgan; Karen Sanders; Patrick Royston Journal: Trials Date: 2009-06-11 Impact factor: 2.279
Authors: Peter Horby; Wei Shen Lim; Jonathan R Emberson; Marion Mafham; Jennifer L Bell; Louise Linsell; Natalie Staplin; Christopher Brightling; Andrew Ustianowski; Einas Elmahi; Benjamin Prudon; Christopher Green; Timothy Felton; David Chadwick; Kanchan Rege; Christopher Fegan; Lucy C Chappell; Saul N Faust; Thomas Jaki; Katie Jeffery; Alan Montgomery; Kathryn Rowan; Edmund Juszczak; J Kenneth Baillie; Richard Haynes; Martin J Landray Journal: N Engl J Med Date: 2020-07-17 Impact factor: 91.245