COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

Background: The rapid spread and high infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) makes identifying an effective prophylaxis agent highly important. One of the important target populations for such intervention who are at high risk of exposure are health care workers (HCWs) who may develop disease and/or expose patients and other HCWs. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), currently in usage for treatment of severe Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), has in addition to in-vitro activities of inhibition of virus replication and immunomodulation, an important role in the inhibition of pre-entry step of the virus to host cells. Such activity in the early stage of infection may play a role in prevention of disease progression. Objectives: To evaluate the effect of HCQ in prevention of clinical disease and reduction of viral shedding among HCWs following exposure to confirmed COVID-19 patients. Study design: Multi-center, randomized controlled, superiority, open label trial Setting: The study will be conducted at Rambam Health Care Campus. Eligibility: Participants eligible for inclusion will include non-pregnant adult (>18 years old) HCWs who were exposed to a confirmed case of COVID-19 without full adherence to droplet precautions. Participants will be eligible in a period no longer than 72 hours after exposure. Intervention: HCQ will be given in the intervention group in a dosage regimen of 400mg BID in the first day followed by 200mg BID for overall 10 days. Participants in the control group will receive no treatment. Treatment will be started no longer than 72 hours following exposure. Outcomes: The primary outcome will be the number of participants who develop clinical signs compatible with COVID 19 (defined in full protocol) within 14 days of exposure. Secondary outcomes will include virologically-confirmed COVID 19, disease severity (need for hospitalization, mechanical ventilation and 30-day mortality) and viral shedding duration (time between first positive PCR to last of two consecutive negative tests) for confirmed COVID 19 cases. Sample size: The trial will test for HCQ's superiority assuming a primary outcome incidence of 20% in the control group and a reduction of 50% with HCQ. The sample size required for a power of 80% (alpha 0.05) is 291 participants per each group.

An observational study of consecutive patients testing positive for COVID-19 who require admission to hospital to determine the degree of myocardial injury through biomarkers and echocardiography and the impact of this on cardiovascular outcomes. The COVID-19 disease and CARdiac Events study (COVICARE).

Note that this is a study that is co-sponsored by Medecins Sans Frontieres, Spain, and the University of Oxford. The primary objective of this study is to identify clinical and biochemical prognostic markers in adults with virologically confirmed COVID-19 who do not require oxygen supplementation, with a focus on: aiding safe discharge from a healthcare facility (i.e. a high NPV); near-term impact on COVID-19 interventions in resource-limited settings (i.e. simple clinico-demographic variables and biochemical markers for which near-patient / POCTs are commercially available or in late-stage development). The secondary objective of this study is to evaluate the field-based performance of near-patient lateral flow assays for suPAR and IL-6 in adults with non-severe SARS-CoV-2 infection

Stem cell therapy has emerged as a revolutionary treatment for diseases that were considered untreatable only a few years ago. Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UCMSCs) have been shown to repair damaged liver, kidney, heart, pancreas, skin, cartilage, and cornea in animal models and several human trials. In addition to cellular replacement through regeneration, UCMSCs mediate through paracrine signaling pathways resulting in immune modulation. Clinical manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), are believed to arise from septic shock and cytokine storm that cause acute respiratory dysfunction and acute cardiac injury. There is presently no cure for the COVID-19 viral disease; however, multi-treatment strategies are being examined. During the past two months, four reports were published that suggest, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), owing to their powerful immunomodulatory ability, may prevent the cytokine storm and thus reduce the COVID-19 related morbidity. All studies reported that COVID-19 patients responded favorably to MSCs therapy. These reports, taken together with the previous successes of stem cell therapy in animal models, the investigators, a seven-institution consortium, propose to explore the efficacy of UCMSC treatment in COVID-19 patients at Jinnah hospital, Lahore. The investigators propose to administer UCMSCs in patients with acute pulmonary inflammation due to COVID-19 infection with moderate to severe symptoms. In the first cohort of 15 patients, UCMSCs will be administered with three intravenous infusions of 500,000 UCMSCs per Kg body weight each on days 1, 3, and 5. The second group of five patients serving as control will only receive standard treatment. During the 30-day post-infusion period, a battery of tests will be performed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the UCMSCs treatment. In parallel, the investigators propose a comparative study to determine COVID-19 viral count by quantitative real-time PCR and through viral coat protein ELISA, developed in the investigator advisor lab (Dr. Tauseef Butt, Progenra Inc. Philadelphia, USA) with the ultimate objective to locally developing a rapid diagnostic assay.

COVID-19 is a new emerging disease caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, with no specific therapeutic options. Since the end of February 2020, the Strasbourg University Hospital (HUS) had faced a sudden increase of patients with COVID-19 resulted from a SARS-CoV-2 superspreading event (religious meeting). Infected individuals went to regional hospitals, and this led to a cluster of infected healthcare workers at the Strasbourg University Hospitals from the first week of March. To date, several hundred Strasbourg hospital workers have presented a SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed by the RT-PCR test from a nasopharyngeal sample. Most of them developed a mild form of COVID-19. It is important to understand how far the infection has spread in the hospital staff, and to which extent the individuals who have been infected develop antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

The purpose of this study is to define seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV2 among children of Hospital Workers in APHP, particularly exposed population, according to parents' SARS-CoV2 serological status.

The primary objective is to use "network targeted sampling design" to detect active and/or undiagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the community and determine the spread or distribution of 1) active infection, and 2) past exposure. The hypothesis is that there are many undiagnosed and/or asymptomatic people in the community who may be unknowingly spreading the virus or have been exposed and have antibodies. We propose to implement respondent-driven sampling (RDS) which leverages effort on the part of seed or index cases to recruit contacts for participation.

Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) is a live attenuated vaccine administered for prevention of tuberculosis. Recently, several groups have hypothesized that BCG may "train" the immune system to respond to a variety of unrelated infections, including viruses and in particular the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. Trials are currently being conducted in Australia, Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom to evaluate its effectiveness. Front line workers includes members of municipal and provincial police services, emergency medical personnel, firefighters, public transport employees, health service workers and food manufacturing employees. They are at high risk of infection from COVID-19, with potentially high infection rate. The investigators propose an interventional trial to evaluate the effectiveness of BCG vaccination to prevent COVID-19 infection and reduce its severity in front-line employees in Ontario.

This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase I clinical study to evaluate the tolerability, safety, pharmacokinetic profile and immunogenicity of JS016 (anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody) injection in Chinese healthy subjects after intravenous infusion of single dose.Eligible patients will be injection JS016 (anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody)

This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, 28-day study of adult participants hospitalized with COVID-19, with a safety follow-up telephone call at Day 60.