Clinical Trials during Covid-19

Abstract

The current novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to substantial changes in health risks, access to health care, and daily interactions. Through these and other challenges, the pandemic is affecting ongoing clinical trials that are evaluating interventions aimed at preventing or treating diseases other than COVID-19. Meaningful alterations to the implementation of protocol-specified procedures for adherence and retention of study participants, without careful consideration of the consequences to statistical analysis, can compromise the generalizability of clinical trial results about efficacy and safety of studied interventions in the postpandemic setting [1].