COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Anluohuaxian in blocking the progression of pulmonary fibrosis and improving lung function in patients with COVID-19.

Patients with COVID-19 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or hospitalized with severe form have a poor prognosis (almost 30% rate of death). They present often a high cardiovascular risk profile (almost 30% of hypertension and 19% of diabetes). Troponin has been described to be elevated in a high proportion of patients (one fifth of all patients and 50% of non-survivors) suggesting the possibility of cardiomyopathies. High levels of DDimers (81% of non survivors) and fibrin degradation products are also associated with increased risk of mortality suggesting also the possibility of venous thromboembolism. Therefore, screening for cardiomyopathies and venous thromboembolism could represent an important challenge for patients with COVID-19 management.

Background: A novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) described in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, has led to a pandemic and to a specific coronavirus-related disease (COVID-19), which is mainly characterized by a respiratory involvement. While researching for a vaccine has been started, effective therapeutic solutions are urgently needed to face this threaten. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has a relevant role in COVID-19, as the virus will enter host 's cells via the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2); RAS disequilibrium might also play a key role in the modulation of the inflammatory response that characterizes the lung involvement. Angiotensin-(1-7) is a peptide that is downregulated in COVID-19 patient and it may potentially improve respiratory function in this setting. Methods/Design: The Investigators describe herein the methodology of a randomized, controlled, adaptive Phase II/Phase III trial to test the safety, efficacy and clinical impact of the infusion of angiotensin-(1-7) in COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation. A first phase of the study, including a limited number of patients (n=20), will serve to confirm the safety of the study drug, by observing the number of the severe adverse events. In a second phase, the enrollment will continue to investigate the primary endpoint of the study (i.e. number of days where the patient is alive and not on mechanical ventilation up to day 28) to evaluate the efficacy and the clinical impact of this drug. Secondary outcomes will include the hospital length of stay, ICU length of stay, ICU and hospital mortality, time to weaning from mechanical ventilation, reintubation rate, secondary infections, needs for vasopressors, PaO2/FiO2 changes, incidence of deep vein thrombosis, changes in inflammatory markers, angiotensins plasmatic levels and changes in radiological findings. The estimated sample size to demonstrate a reduction in the primary outcome from a median of 14 to 11 days is 56 patients, 60 including a dropout rate of 3% (i.e. 30 per group), but a preplanned recalculation of the study sample size is previewed after the enrollment of 30 patients. Expected outcomes/Discussion: This controlled trial will assess the efficacy, safety and clinical impact of the Angiotensin-(1-7) infusion in a cohort of COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The results of this trial may provide useful information for the management of this disease.

In this study, defined cases of COVID-19 with mild, moderate or severe pneumonia will be treated with standard treatment regimens in combination with IV injection of Deferoxamine. Improvement in clinical, laboratory and radiological manifestations will be evaluated in treated patient compared to control group.

The current spread of the COrona VIrus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Italy, and the current lack of effective and approved drugs for its treatment, poses the problem of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infected patients management, especially those who underwent to experience COVID-19 complications, such as CRS. This unmet need becomes more severe if the investigator consider that, the COVID-19 mortality stands around 2% in the general population, but it rises to 49% when considering intensive care unit (ICU) patients. To increase the chances of survival of these patients, the compassionate use of the available drugs is required, based on literature data, to the best of our abilities. ICU patients with cytokine release syndrome (CRS) secondary to COVID-19, show increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL-6), IL-2, IL-7, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interferon (INF)γ, similar to that found in patients who develop CRS secondary to Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T (CAR-T) therapy. Although immuno-modulatory therapy is not routinely recommended in COVID-19 pneumonia, tocilizumab might have a rationale in those patients who develop CRS, blocking the complications caused by high levels of IL-6, and possibly preventing the development of a multi-organ failure. Reassuring data in this sense, come from the first studies conducted in China. In a Chinese pilot study, Xiaoling Xu and collaborators used tocilizumab (at a dosage of 400 mg iv in a single dose, with a possible second dose in case of no clinical response) in patients with COVID-19 in the presence of one of the following criteria: i) respiratory rate ≥ 30 acts/min; ii) SpO2 ≤ 93% in ambient air; iii) PaO2/FiO2 ≤ 300 mmHg. In the 21 patients treated with tocilizumab a significant reduction in IL-6 levels and fever, with improvement in lung function, was demonstrated. Besides, 90% of treated patients showed an improvement in the radiological picture, in terms of a decrease in the frosted glass areas, and a return to normal lymphocytes count in the peripheral blood. This is a prospective observational clinical study and it is aimed at verifying tocilizumab efficacy and safety in patients with COVID-19 complicated by acute distress respiratory syndrome (ARDS) and CRS.

To investigate the mechanism, clinical outcome and therapeutic efficacy with favipiravir of Corona Virus Disease 2019 patients whose nucleic acids changed from negative to positive.

The new outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is causing an important pandemic affecting a large number of people all-over the world. Vitamin D is a hormone precursor produced by our own body with the help of sunlight which has an important role on adaptive immunity and cellular differentiation, maturation and proliferation of several immune cells. Reduced levels of vitamin D in calves were positioned as the main cause of bovine coronavirus infection in the past. Therefore, it seems plausible that the use of vitamin D as a nutritional ergogenic aid could be a potential intervention to fight against COVID-19 infected patients which remain asymptomatic or which have non-severe and severe symptoms. This study aims to investigate whether the use of vitamin D as an immune modulator agent induces significant improvements of health status and outcomes in non-severe symptomatic patients infected with COVID-19 as well as preventing COVID-19 health deterioration. We hypothesize that vitamin D will significantly improve hard endpoints related to COVID-19 deleterious consequences compared with a usual care control group.

There is an urgent need to understand the outcomes of COVID-19 infected patients who undergo surgery, specially vascular surgery. Capturing real-world data and sharing Spanish national experience will inform the management of this complex group of patients who undergo surgery throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, improving their clinical care. The global community has recognised that rapid dissemination and completion of studies in COVID-19 infected patients is a high priority, so we encourage all stakeholders (local investigators, ethics committees, IRBs) to work as quickly as possible to approve this project. This investigator-led, non-commercial, non-interventional study is extremely low risk, or even zero risk. This study does not collect any patient identifiable information (including no dates) and data will not be analysed at hospital-level.

Currently there are no proven treatment option for COVID-19. Human convalescent plasma is an option for COVID-19 treatment and could be available from people who have recovered and can donate plasma.

The overall objective of the study is to determine the therapeutic effect and tolerance of Tocizilumab in patients with moderate, severe pneumonia or critical pneumonia associated with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Tocilizumab (TCZ) is an anti-human IL-6 receptor monoclonal antibody that inhibits signal transduction by binding sIL-6R and mIL-6R. The study has a cohort multiple Randomized Controlled Trials (cmRCT) design. Randomization will occur prior to offering Tocilizumab administration to patients enrolled in the COVIMUNO-19 cohort. Tocilizumab will be administered to consenting adult patients hospitalized with CORVID-19 either diagnosed with moderate or severe pneumonia requiring no mechanical ventilation or critical pneumonia requiring mechanical ventilation. Patients who will chose not to receive Tocilizumab will receive standard of cares. Outcomes of Tocilizumab-treated patients will be compared with outcomes of standard of care treated patients as well as outcomes of patients treated with other immune modulators.