DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- FHI Clinical Inc. announced that it has a subcontract with theFrederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, currently operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., to provide clinical operations services for the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT). ACTT is an adaptive study to allow investigation of putative therapeutics, for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adults.

Supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, the ongoing ACTT study is a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial. Preliminary results of the first iteration from ACTT-1 were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) for 1,063 participants recruited within an eight-week period at 60 study sites and 13 subsites in Denmark, Germany, Greece, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The FHI Clinical team provides a variety of clinical operations services and expertise for this study, including trial master file (TMF) management, site management tasks such as regulatory document collection, operational communications and responses, study team meeting coordination and 24/7 call center oversight and staffing.

In this first iteration of the trial, in addition to standard care, intravenous remdesivir or placebo was administered for up to 10 days to determine the effect on recovery time. Due to the rapid enrollment pace, an interim review by the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) occurred after enrollment was completed but while follow-up was ongoing.

The preliminary analysis demonstrated that adults hospitalized with COVID-19 receiving remdesivir showed shorter time to recovery, 11 days compared with 15 days for the placebo group, as well as lower mortality rates. The rates of adverse events were similar between the groups.

The next iteration of the study, known as ACTT-2, is now open, and new participants are receiving remdesivir plus an anti-inflammatory drug (baricitinib) or remdesivir alone.

“The FHI Clinical team is excited to be part of this important work to find efficacious and safe treatments for COVID-19,” said Ted FitzGerald, FHI Clinical president and CEO. “Our team was able to jump in and make an immediate impact given our extensive experience managing studies around the globe.”

Of the FHI Clinical study team members, Danielle Fisher, Associate Director of Clinical Operations, and Wendi McDonald, Clinical Research Associate, are listed in the NEJM paper for their contributions to the study. A new paper will be published in the NEJM once follow-up is complete and results from the full analyses are available.

To learn more:

• Review the National Institutes of Health’s summary of study
• Visit clinicaltrials.gov for additional information about the study
• Read our brochure to learn more about how FHI Clinical’s services support outbreak responses

This project was funded, in whole with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under 75N91019D00024.

About FHI Clinical

FHI Clinical is a full-service contract research organization (CRO) with the global expertise, responsive approaches and proven solutions to manage complex clinical research in resource-limited settings around the world. Our mission is to address unmet research needs and achieve maximum social impact by supporting the development of life-saving vaccines and medicines. Visit fhiclinical.com or contact us at info@fhiclinical.com or 919.321.3321 to learn how we can put our diverse clinical and operational expertise to work for you.

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