Amid COVID-19, Dr Swaminathan highlights India's contributions to global solidarity trials

As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan on Monday highlighted India’s efforts towards global solidarity trials. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the seminar of PANEX-21, Swaminathan stated that "India is one of the largest contributors to global solidarity trials," according to ANI. She highlighted the need to conduct the trial that would give the result regarding the drug, whether it can save lives of patients with severe conditions to COVID-19 or hospitalised due to COVID-19.

“India is one of the largest contributors of the global solidarity trial coordinated by the Indian Council of Medical Research(ICMR) but occurring in countries across countries,” Dr Soumya Swaminathan said as per ANI.

Need for 'multicountry and collaborative platform trials'

In her address at the opening ceremony of the seminar of PANEX-21, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan informed that WHO has created a global solidarity platform as it recognizes the need for small clinical trials that might not always provide the conclusion. She highlighted the need for “multicountry and collaborative platform trials” needed during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to ANI. She stated that multiple small clinical trials are conducted in which drugs are tested. Dr Soumya Swaminathan mentioned, they “do it in very large sample size, and look at endpoints which are of public health importance like mortality,” according to ANI. 

Recognizing the need for more vaccines, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan informed that WHO has set up a Solidarity vaccine trial to conduct testing of vaccines that are in the development stage. She underscored that every disease can be tested in India as it has a huge population and human resources and infrastructure. Dr Swaminathan underlined that army personnel can contribute more towards medical research.

"In a country like India, we can do the trial within India because we have such a huge population and every possible disease can be tested. Plus we have the capacity. We have human resources and infrastructure,” Dr Soumya Swaminathan said as per ANI. 

WHO announces next phase of solidarity trial 

In August, the World Health Organization announced the next phase in its solidarity trial. The 'Solidarity PLUS trial' is a platform trial that represents the global collaboration among the WHO Member States, according to WHO. In the trial, thousands of researchers in over 600 hospitals in 52 countries have been involved. The trial is conducted to assess multiple treatments at the same time. Thousands of patients were included in the trial to assess the effect of the drug. For the trial, the drugs were donated by manufacturers. 

(Inputs from ANI)