Swiss participation in the WHO’s Solidarity trial to test the efficacy of repurposed drugs for treating COVID-19: What the research community has learnt so far

Abstract

The World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial is one of the largest international randomised clinical trials for COVID-19 treatments in the world and provides an excellent example of a global effort to fight the pandemic. When Switzerland was invited to participate in the trial, the Swiss research community gave a resoundingly positive response. Researchers, investigators, hospitals, ethics committees, and authorities all worked together and made extraordinary efforts – in the midst of the difficulties brought on by the pandemic – to get the trial up and running in Switzerland in a relatively short amount of time. Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and the Clinical Trial Unit (CTU) Lausanne coordinate these remarkable efforts. In this article, two national coordinators for the Solidarity trial provide an overview of the trial, address some of the challenges encountered and solutions found when preparing for and conducting the trial in Switzerland, and discuss some of the lessons learnt so far that can be carried into the future.