News

19.06.20

University of Liverpool-led initiative awarded £2.2m funding

A research initiative to rapidly identify potentially ‘game-changing’ Covid-19 drugs, led by the University of Liverpool, has been awarded funding of more than £2.2m.

With conventional evaluation of new medicines being a lengthy processes, typically taking upwards of 10 years, new methods have had to be adapted and developed to meet the urgent need for treating and preventing the current coronavirus outbreak.

Already there is a number of ongoing large-scale clinical trials testing a ‘first wave’ of repurposed medicines, such as Ebola medicine remdesivir, HIV drug lopinavir and malaria treatment hydroxychloroquine, to see if they could have similar positive impacts in treating Covid-19.

Yet, should these compounds fail to demonstrate clear benefit, a more broad and increasing range of alternative compounds – many with far less clinical evidence available – will have to be examined. Processes like these will require an ability to rapidly provide clinical proof-of-concepts for drug candidates emerging from global pre-clinical screening efforts. Dynamic early stage (phase I/IIa) clinical trials will be required to advance, ahead of time, plausible candidates for inclusion in randomised phase III clinical trials, and to eliminate candidates with little or no prospect of clinical success before huge resources are committed.

The AGILE Covid-19 Drug Testing Initiative, which is being led by the University of Liverpool and involving researchers from the Liverpool Tropical School of Medicine, Southampton Clinical Trials Unit and NIHR Liverpool and Broadgreen Clinical Research Facility, has been established to enable the rapid clinical evaluation of potential Covid-19 therapeutics.

READ MORE: World’s largest potential coronavirus treatments trial rolled out in UK

READ MORE: University Hospital Southampton trialling new coronavirus drug

Saye Khoo, Professor of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, said: “AGILE uses the most modern and innovative statistical methods which allows for multiple drugs to be tested in parallel, and to remove or add treatments faster than ever before, based on results of safety and efficacy.”

“This has the advantage of testing more treatments, more quickly, to find out which new drugs are suitable for large-scale testing in COVID-19 patients. This is similar to ‘fast track’ programmes for treatment of cancer patients that are approved by the UK regulator.”

Andrew Owen, a fellow Professor of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool, added: “Working closely with established consortia including key stakeholders involved in WHO-led expert groups for treatment and prevention of COVID-19, AGILE will advance plausible candidates for these consortia to test in large-scale trials.”

“AGILE has been specifically designed to rapidly identify drugs that stand the best chance of success in the battle against COVID-19.”

The AGILE clinical research trials will be taking place at the NIHR Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Clinical Research Unit based at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. The unit provides state of the art purpose-built facilities that offer a safe and regulated environment to perform clinical research trials to the highest possible standards.

Comments

There are no comments. Why not be the first?

Add your comment

national health executive tv

more videos >

latest news

View all News

comment

NHS England dementia director prescribes rugby for mental health and dementia patients

23/09/2019NHS England dementia director prescribes rugby for mental health and dementia patients

Reason to celebrate as NHS says watching rugby can be good for your mental ... more >
Peter Kyle MP: It’s time to say thank you this Public Service Day

21/06/2019Peter Kyle MP: It’s time to say thank you this Public Service Day

Taking time to say thank you is one of the hidden pillars of a society. Bei... more >

editor's comment

26/06/2020Adapting and Innovating

Matt Roberts, National Health Executive Editorial Lead. NHE May/June 2020 Edition We’ve been through so much as a health sector and a society in recent months with coronavirus and nothing can take away from the loss and difficulties that we’ve faced but it vital we also don’t disregard the amazing efforts we’ve witnessed. Staff have gone above and beyond, whole hospitals and trusts have flexed virtually at will to meet demand and pressures and we’ve... read more >

last word

Haseeb Ahmad: ‘We all have a role to play in getting innovations quicker’

Haseeb Ahmad: ‘We all have a role to play in getting innovations quicker’

Haseeb Ahmad, president of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), sits down with National Health Executive as part of our Last Word Q&A series. Would you talk us throu more > more last word articles >

interviews

Matt Hancock says GP recruitment is on the rise to support ‘bedrock of the NHS’

24/10/2019Matt Hancock says GP recruitment is on the rise to support ‘bedrock of the NHS’

Today, speaking at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) annual... more >

the scalpel's daily blog

Covid-19 can signal a new deal with the public on health

28/08/2020Covid-19 can signal a new deal with the public on health

Danny Mortimer, Chief Executive, NHS Employers & Deputy Chief Executive, NHS Confederation The common enemy of coronavirus united the public side by side wi... more >
read more blog posts from 'the scalpel' >

healthcare events

events calendar

back

September 2020

forward
mon tue wed thu fri sat sun
31 1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11

featured articles

View all News