People aged 65 and over or those aged 50-64 with underlying health conditions are needed to take part.
The study aims to enrol 3,000 people initially: there are currently thirteen General Practices in the South West signed up, and a further 61 that have expressed an interest.
The nationally coordinated PRINCIPLE (Platform Randomised trial of INterventions against COVID-19 in older pePLE) trial, led by the University of Oxford, will enable researchers to rapidly evaluate different treatments that could stem the progression of COVID-19 symptoms in older people and help ease the burden on hospitals.
Unlike many other clinical trials for COVID-19, which are mostly focussed on providing treatment to those who already have serious symptoms and are admitted to hospital, the PRINCIPLE trial looks to identify treatments that can be prescribed by community-based GPs to slow or halt the progression of the disease and prevent the need for hospitalisation.
Will Moyle, practice manager at the Teign Estuary Medical Group in Teignmouth, enrolled the first patient participant in the region to the trial within 24 hours of it opening for recruitment. He said: ’We are very proud to have been the first practice in the South West to recruit and randomise a patient to the PRINCIPLE trial.
’Within three hours of sending out the text messages we had our first patient consent via the study website. This has been one of the most straightforward studies the practice has run.’
In the first instance, the trial is evaluating a drug called hydroxychloroquine. This drug is well known and has been used for many years around the world for conditions such as malaria and certain types of arthritis. The drug is not currently used to treat coronavirus infection because it is not yet known whether it is an effective treatment, but the trial aims to answer this question. The antibiotic azithromycin will soon be added to the trial.