Second research trial for Covid-19 patients at Peterborough City Hospital

The research and development team will now be able to provide an additional treatment option for patients admitted with Covid-19 at both Peterborough City and Hinchingbrooke Hospitals. This will determine whether or not any of the possible new treatments are more or less effective than those currently used to treat Covid-19 patients.

The treatments initially included in the trial are: Iopinavir-Ritonavir (normally used to treat HIV), the steroid Dexamethasone (which is used in a wide range of conditions to reduce inflammation), Hydroxychloroquine (used to treat Mmalaria and rheumatological diseases) and Azithromycin (a common antibiotic).

However, following its recruitment success, the trust has been selected to open a second randomisation which will introduce Tocilizumab (an anti-inflammatory treatment) as a treatment for patients with progressive Covid-19.

Dr Kanchan Rege, trust medical director, said: “Recruiting 121 patients to the trial is a fantastic achievement and a testament to the hard work of our research and development team who have worked closely with clinical teams to recruit patients. We are also thrilled to be selected to open a second randomisation.”

The RECOVERY trial (The Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy) is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation and is led by the University of Oxford. As of May 6 there were 9,119 participants taking part in the RECOVERY trial at sites across the country.