Britain wins 'rare praise' for leading race to test life-saving Covid drugs

July 26, 2020

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It has been a startling week for those following Britain’s response to the pandemic. Roundly derided for the lateness of its lockdown and its bungled testing programmes, the UK was the unexpected recipient of a sudden bout of lavish praise for its scientists’ efforts to combat the disease.

The prime target for these plaudits has been the UK’s Recovery trial, a drug-testing programme that has involved input from more than 3,000 doctors and nurses working with 12,000 Covid-19 patients in 176 hospitals across the nation – from the Western Isles to Truro and from Derry to King’s Lynn. These trials were carried out in intensive care units crammed with the seriously ill, patients whose numbers were boosted to high levels because of the UK’s late pandemic lockdown. The results have nevertheless changed Covid-19 clinical practice across the planet.

A cheap inflammation treatment has been found to save the lives of seriously ill patients while two much-touted therapies have been shown to be useless at tackling the disease. No other nation has come close to matching these achievements.

“It has been an extraordinary four months,” says one of Recovery’s founders, Martin Landray of Oxford University. “And yes, it is something that the UK can be proud of.”

Current trials are now focusing on three other candidate treatments: an antibiotic called azithromycin, an antibody called tocilizumab and a treatment known convalescent plasma – blood plasma that is taken from people who have had coronavirus and which will contain antibodies that might help those who are seriously affected by the virus.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/26/britain-wins-rare-praise-for-leading-race-to-test-life-saving-coronavirus-drugs