Covid19db -- An online database of trials of medicinal products to prevent or treat COVID-19, with a specific focus on drug repurposing

Pantziarka, P.; Vandeborne, L.; Meheus, L.; Bouche, G.

Background: The global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus has prompted an unprecedented international effort to seek medicines for prevention and treatment of infection. Drug repurposing has played a key part in this response. The rapid increase in trial activity has raised questions about efficiency and lack of coordination. Our objective was to develop a user-friendly, open access, online database of interventional trials of medicinal products to monitor and rapidly identify trials of medicinal products. Methods and Findings: Using the US clinicaltrials.gov (NCT) registry, the EU Clinical Trials Register (EUCTR) and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP), we identified all COVID-19 trials of medicinal products and combined data from the 3 sources into a single data table. Trials that were out of scope and duplicates were excluded. A manual encoding was performed to ascertain key information (e.g. trial aim, type of intervention etc). The database, Covid19db, was published online at: http://www.redo-project.org/covid19db/. Descriptive statistics of the database from April 4th 2020 through to May 19th show an increase from 186 to 955 trials, or an average of 17 new trials registered per day. Over this period, the proportion of trials including a repurposing arm decreased slightly over time (from a maximum of 75% to 68% at the end of the covered period) as did the proportion of trials aiming to prevent infection (from a maximum of 16% to 12% at the end of the covered period). The most popular intervention is hydroxychloroquine (180 trials), followed by azithromycin (57 trials), chloroquine, tocilizumab and lopinavir/ritonavir (36 trials). Total planned enrolment is 468,559 participants as of 19th May 2020. Conclusions: we have developed an open access, online and regularly updated tool to monitor clinical trials of medicinal products to prevent or treat infection by SARS-CoV-2 globally. Our analysis shows a high number of 'me-too' trials, in particular for some repurposed drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and tocilizumab, substantiating calls for better coordination and better use of trial resources.