Strategy would support clinical trials and cover ‘long-Covid’
The European Commission has proposed an EU strategy for developing and producing treatments for Covid-19, which includes €90 million for population studies and clinical trials, among other investments.
“Vaccinations save lives, but they cannot yet eradicate Covid-19,” EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said, making the announcement on 6 May. “We need a strong push on treatments to limit the need for hospitalisation, speed up recovery times, and reduce mortality.”
Under the strategy, the €90m for population studies and clinical trials would be used to examine links between risk factors and health outcomes, to inform public health policy and clinical management including for sufferers of long-term health effects.
An ‘innovation booster’ would coordinate research on Covid-19 therapeutics, while €5m in funding from the EU health programme would be directed to clinical trials on treatment safety and €2m to speeding and coordinating assessments for clinical trial approval.
A further €5m would be used to assess treatment development and production bottlenecks, while €40m would go on manufacturing.
The Commission aims to authorise at least three new therapeutics by October and possibly two more by the end of the year, identifying by June the five most promising therapeutics from a broader portfolio of 10.