In February 2020, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a public-private partnership, the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT) network, followed in April 2020 by the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) network, to develop a multidisciplinary coordinated research response to COVID-19. These networks achieved remarkable success in completing multiple adaptive randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and identifying effective (and ineffective) treatments for patients with COVID-19. Even as the pandemic enters a new phase, the results reported from these adaptive trials have important ramifications for current and future investigations of novel therapeutics during a pandemic as well as for clinical care, because the risk of serious illness when hospitalization for COVID-19 is required remains elevated among both vaccinated and nonvaccinated individuals.
Source: JAMA Online First