“We have analysed data from the scientific literature on Sars and Mers coronaviruses as well as the first publications on Sars-cov2 from China to come up with a list of antiviral molecules to be tested: remdesivir, lopinavir in combination with ritonavir, the latter treatment being associated or not with interferon beta, and hydroxychloroquine,” Florence Ader, an infectologist who is leading the trial said in a statement released on 22 March. She explained that the list is based on the list of experimental treatments prioritised by the World Health Organization.

“The great strength of this trial is its ‘adaptive’ nature. This means that ineffective experimental treatments can very quickly be abandoned and replaced by other molecules that emerge from the research. We will therefore be able to react in real time, in line with the most recent scientific data, in order to highlight the best treatment for our patients,” Ader explained.

Some 3,200 patients from Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain, and 800 in France will participate.

All have been hospitalised for a covid-19 infection, are in a medical department or directly in intensive care. Each treatment’s efficacy and safety will be analysed 15 days after each patient joins the programme.

Initially, the open trials will be carried out at five French hospitals (Paris-Hôpital Bichat-AP-HP, Lille, Nantes, Strasbourg and Lyon), after which they will be extended to 15 other centres.

“Our strategy of opening centres will follow the epidemiological reality of the epidemic with a priority to opening the trial in hospitals under high pressure,” Ader said.

The trial’s data will complement data from another international study called “Solidarity”. Led by the WHO, the trial will compare untested treatments in several countries.

Ader is infectiologist in the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department of the Croix-Rousse Hospital of Lyon University Hospital and researcher at the CIRI International Research Centre in Infectiology.