While the new Corona virus has killed more than 20,000 people in France, the identification of treatments that can curb the disease has become a public health emergency.
With a study called "Anaconda-Covid 19", the university hospital in Tor is seeking to test the efficacy of an existing drug, "anakinra".
Less than a month after the start of the quarantine, the search is still far from treating the virus. In Tor, the researchers launched a new study on April 27th, aimed at determining "the efficacy and tolerability of Anakinra in adults with corona with exacerbation of respiratory symptoms."
The study, "Anaconda-Covid 19" is supervised by the team of the Department of Internal Medicine, led by Professor François Mayotte, and it is expected that it will include 240 patients, from 47 public and private centers, and will continue for the next four months.
Earlier this month, the research and recovery unit and the hospital's intensive care and recovery department were already participating in a first study of "hydrocortisone", which could also help organize the "immune response".
How is the clinical study done?
1. The patients agree in writing. For the Anaconda-Covid 19 study, adult men and women are already hospitalized due to severe symptoms of the virus.
2. Patients are randomly divided into two groups of equal number. Treatment is tested in only one of the two groups, while the other group is classified as a "control group".
3. Duration of the patient to study 28 days. Many variables are measured for each patient on the first, third, tenth, 14, and 28th days. If the patient is discharged from the hospital in the meantime, blood samples can be taken at home.
4. The patients included in the study received treatment, including "anakinra", for a period of ten days. The intravenous method and dose measurement were developed by a scientific committee made up of virus experts and this drug.
5. Once the study includes half of the patients (60 per group), the independent monitoring committee will perform a temporary analysis, and this aims to determine whether the study can be stopped early or not.