Indian Interventional trials for COVID-19 drugs: Insights and Learnings

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, India has substantially contributed to drug development and clinical research. Task Force on Repurposing of Drugs (TFORD) for COVID19 has tried to look at the overall position of India in terms of interventional clinical trials and highlight learnings which can prepare us to fight future pandemics in a better way. Trials registered on CTRI from March 2020 to December 2020 were considered for this purpose. From a total 409 trials registered, 108 focused on modern drugs. From 108 trials studied, 92 were randomized trials, 34 trials were sponsored by Indian Pharmaceutical industry, 23 were self-sponsored and 20 were sponsored by Research institutes and hospitals. Only 83 trials studied the repurposed drugs. An unfortunate revelation was that out of 108 trials, 79 showed as not yet recruiting. This highlights the urgent need for Government, Research institutions and Indian Pharmaceutical industries to break down silos and work together towards this common cause.