Impact of COVID-19 on clinical trials and clinical research
Never before has a drug or vaccine been approved for use as rapidly as vaccines for Covid-19.
The astonishing pace of progress in the development of these vaccines was mainly due to the massive number of volunteers joining clinical trials for Covid-19 thus reducing recruitment times, the merging of Phase 1/2 or Phase 2/3 trials, and the expedited regulatory decisions.
Consequently, the first Covid-19 vaccine became available only months after the virus emerged instead of the usual 10+ years previously reported for clinical drug development.
While it may not be possible to combine trials or expedite regulatory decisions in the development of every single new drug, we can certainly boost recruitment of trial participants to accelerate new drug development timelines without compromising people’s safety.
