"Clinical trials must be carried out because there is no effective treatment for covid"

The Clínico Hospital Pharmacy service participates in five studies related to the coronavirus, in two of them as principal investigator.

"It is necessary to continue carrying out clinical trials because it has not yet been proven that there is an effective treatment for covid-19. It is recommended that to generate evidence, these studies must be carried out, which are the ideal framework to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of any medication. ". However, as explained by Dr. Tránsito Salvador, head of the Hospital Pharmacy service at the Hospital Clínico, the "advantage of this stage is that although it takes a lot of time to generate scientific evidence, now the entire scientific community has turned to the power demonstrate this as soon as possible." And, in fact, the Hospital Pharmacy, in this health crisis due to the coronavirus, has been "organized in a way that in another situation would be unthinkable": "Clinical trials have been set up at a very high speed, the Spanish Medicines Agency expedited the administrative procedures to approve the proposals that were presented and for the hospitals to launch these studies.

"The clinical trial is currently the standard tool to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of investigational drugs." The Hospital Pharmacy of the Clínico Lozano Blesa actively participates in five clinical trials related to the treatment of covid-19, of which four focus on the last phases of research and are carried out with medications already normally marketed, such as hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine or lopinavir/ritonavir.

In two, the Zaragoza center participates as principal investigator, such as the one called RerFar-Covid 19. "It is a clinical trial in which patients' health data is collected in order to analyze the safety or effectiveness of the medication in patients who have required hospitalization." Or the so-called Quinavid-19, whose purpose is to evaluate the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as chemoprophylaxis against covid in health professionals, since they can become one of the main vectors of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 due to continuous contact in their work with infected patients, other patients vulnerable to infection and other staff as well as healthy family members. "Therefore, prophylaxis in this population should be a matter of special interest to stop the spread of the pandemic," he said. The main researcher is a pharmacist from the service.

There are three other trials in which pharmacists from the service are collaborators. This is Solidarity, whose objective is to evaluate four existing treatments with indications for other pathologies, in patients hospitalized with the coronavirus; Epicos, a chemoprophylaxis trial in health professionals (such as Quinavid), which evaluates whether an antiviral drug used has prophylactic activity for the treatment of HIV/AIDS; and AnaCovid-Geas, a multicenter study investigating the efficacy and safety of intravenous administration of the drug anakinra added to standard treatment, to reduce the hyperinflammation that occurs with infection.

"If the data revealed in the results of these clinical trials demonstrate this, they can make a difference in the approach to this disease," Salvador highlighted. The result of the involvement in carrying out these clinical trials is the consequence of a collective and multidisciplinary effort, where doctors, nurses and pharmacists participate. Therefore, "effort as well as success is everyone's merit."

As he pointed out, "the Hospital Pharmacy has demonstrated in this stage of uncertainty and overflow of care that they are at the level of the rest of the healthcare team and that their contribution to the clinic as well as to research, represents a challenge and a well-deserved need after of a long professional career in which they have been gaining recognition step by step within the healthcare community".