Chemoprophylaxis trial designs in epidemics: insights from a systematic review of COVID-19 study registrations.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Chemoprophylactics against emerging epidemic and pandemic infectious diseases offer potential for prevention but require efficacy and safety analysis before widespread use can be recommended. Chemoprophylaxis with repurposed drugs enables deployment ahead of development of novel vaccines. It may have particular utility as a stopgap ahead of vaccine deployment or when vaccines become less effective on virus variants, in countries where there may be structural inaccessibility to vaccines or in specific risk-groups. Rapid implementation of robust trial designs is a persistent challenge in epidemics. We systematically reviewed SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 chemoprophylaxis trial registrations from the first 21 weeks of the pandemic to critically appraise significant design feature

SUBMITTER: Manoharan L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8164073 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature