Early ‘Scattershot’ Approach To COVID-19 Therapeutic Research Generated Little Actionable Data

US FDA and NIH leaders cite lack of early clinical trial coordination as a weakness in the pandemic response that led to use of compounds that were potentially harmful and, even today, still not proven to be effective.

Telephone wire mess
Early clinical research on COVID therapeutics was disjointed and likely to yield little useful data, an FDA analysis found. • Source: Shutterstock

Clinical research on COVID-19 therapeutics suffered from a lack of centralized coordination early in the pandemic, resulting in the use of compounds that were potentially harmful and, in some cases, remain unproven one year later, leaders of the US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health told a Milken Institute conference on 10 March.

FDA acting commissioner Janet Woodcock cited data from a recent paper she coauthored that found poor coordination and lots of...

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