The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) announced Friday that the COLCORONA clinical study of colchicine to treat patients with COVID-19 went one step further on Friday.
This study focuses on the potential of colchicine, a drug normally used in the treatment of gout, and possibly effective in the fight against the coronavirus in patients already infected by preventing the phenomenon of “major inflammatory storm” of the lungs.
The ICM said in a press release that the study has passed the so-called “intermediate futility” analysis stage established by an independent monitoring committee which judges the effectiveness of a study to be successful.
The COLCORONA study is currently being implemented in Canada, but also in the United States and in certain countries in Europe, South America and Africa. It is one of the rare studies to study people already affected by COVID-19, but not hospitalized. The study is contactless and takes place at home, randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled. It is one of 2,000 studies currently underway, as announced by WHO on Friday, to find an effective and safe treatment for populations.
“We are committed to enrolling as many patients worldwide as possible in this innovative study to determine the effect of colchicine on the severe inflammatory storm associated with COVID-19 while keeping patients out of intensive care and, ultimately, saving lives. ”said Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, director of the CIM Research Center, professor of medicine at the University of Montreal and principal investigator of the study.
COLCORONA is coordinated by the Montreal Center for the Coordination of Clinical Trials and funded by the Government of Quebec, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The study continues to recruit doctors, but especially adult patients who are positive for COVID-19 and not hospitalized. Volunteers can participate by contacting 1 877 536-6837.
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