MRFF windfall supports integration of two major Melbourne-based COVID-19 trials
Just shy of $4 million has today been awarded to the Randomised, Embedded, Multi-factorial, Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) from the Medical Research Future Fund, expanding the trial’s capacity to identify safe and effective treatments for critically ill patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
The funding will support the integration of REMAP-CAP, which is based at the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre (ANZIC-RC) within the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and the Australasian COVID-19 Trial (ASCOT), based at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) in Melbourne.
REMAP-CAP was conceptualized and initially funded in 2015, inspired by the researchers’ experiences during the 2009 swine flu pandemic. The trial gained significant momentum with the arrival of COVID-19. Since that time, it’s produced world-leading results that have identified safe and effective treatments, and conversely, identified ineffective and unsafe treatments that have since been withdrawn. Countless lives have been saved globally as a result.
The ASCOT trial uses similar methodology, but focusses on non-critically ill hospital patients with COVID pneumonia. ASCOT was established in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 and has recruited 1,600 patients in four countries.
The similar methodologies present an opportunity to integrate back-end components of both trials, saving time and money. They’ll share a common protocol and data management system, with increased statistical power to detect treatment effects as soon as possible.
The interventions that will be evaluated under the shared structure are:
- comparative effectiveness of remdesivir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (ASCOT)
- comparative effectiveness of different doses of dexamethasone (both platforms)
- comparative effectiveness of immune modulators known to be effective, tocilizumab and baricitinib, but which have not previously had a head-to-head comparison (both platforms)
- effectiveness of convalescent plasma in patients with pre-existing immune suppression (both platforms)
Read about REMAP-CAP’s previous successes here.
Visit the REMAP-CAP website here.
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