“BAPIO is delighted to support this very important trial. We request all our members to encourage all their contact to register for the trial. Our own BAPIO Pharmacy lead, Professor Mahendra G Patel OBE is one of the leads on this world’s fastest and largest recruiting clinical trial in primary care” Dr. Ramesh Mehta.
- Public urged to sign-up to a world-leading study for antivirals if they test positive for COVID-19
- Recruitment drive backed by charities including Kidney Care UK, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Diabetes UK and the British Liver Trust as antivirals help protect most vulnerable from hospital.
- At least 6,000 more participants are needed as soon as possible so the life-saving treatments can be rolled out more widely.
- People can sign up here: panoramictrial.org/
Adults over the age of 50 or with an underlying health condition who test positive for COVID-19 are being urged to sign up for a world-first COVID-19 study which is providing life-saving antivirals to thousands of people.
The government and leading charities, including Kidney Care UK, Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Diabetes UK and the British Liver Trust, are calling on at least 6,000 more participants to come forward for these cutting-edge treatments through the PANORAMIC study. This is so that expert scientists can understand more about how to deploy these treatments in the NHS more widely later in the year – including who would benefit most from receiving antiviral treatments for COVID-19.
Antivirals are medicines that can be swallowed as a tablet to help treat people with COVID-19 infections to reduce the risk of hospitalisations and death. Molnupiravir, which is currently being deployed through the study, has shown to reduce this for at-risk, non-hospitalized adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 by 30% – potentially saving
thousands of lives once the drugs are available to the NHS.
Anyone over the age of 50 or between 18 to 49 with an underlying health condition can sign up to the study as soon as they receive a positive PCR or lateral flow test result. They need to be experiencing COVID-19 symptoms that began in the last five days to be eligible to enroll.
Our own BAPIO Pharmacy lead, Professor Mahendra G Patel OBE is also one of the leads on this world’s fastest and largest recruiting clinical trial in primary care and says : “It’s important that we continue to support recruitment of volunteers to this high priority study and to be inclusive and representative of the British diaspora as much as possible in terms of its diversity.
BAPIO is uniquely positioned through its vast network to help reach out to communities from all backgrounds as well as those often underserved and disadvantaged. With the support of BAPIO this further strengthens the commitment to ensuring the PANORAMIC trial, the world’s fastest and largest recruiting clinical trial in primary care of it’s kind, is made accessible to all irrespective of their background, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or
where they live.
It’s so encouraging to see BAPIO again playing its part in this pandemic to help in the search for effective treatment of Covid19 in the community through supporting public health and reducing health inequalities by making the PANORAMIC trial as visible as possible and accessible to all.”
Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England, said: “If you’re eligible for PANORAMIC please give some serious consideration to taking part. This will help us decide how to use COVID-19 antiviral drugs for many years to come.”
Eddie Gray, Chair of the Antivirals Taskforce, said: “Antivirals are a hugely important addition to our response to COVID-19 and we have secured access to two important products for NHS patients. “Getting people enrolled onto this study is vital, not just in protecting the most vulnerable now, but in ensuring we can deploy these medicines more widely as soon as possible.”