ArticleBMJ open2020
Characteristics of COVID-19 clinical trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov: cross-sectional analysis.
Article in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- QTc prolongation in COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, azithromycin, or lopinavir/ritonavir: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2021Pooled it
- Qualitative evaluation to improve participant engagement and retention in remote COVID-19 treatment trials.Discover public health · 2025Article
- Teaching critical thinking about health information and choices in secondary schools: human-centred design of digital resources.F1000Research · 2023Article
- Characteristics of clinical trials of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus registered in ClinicalTrials.gov between 2014 and 2021.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Estimating the effect of COVID-19 on trial design characteristics: a registered report.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Competition for recruitment in SARS-CoV-2 Trials in the United States: a longitudinal cohort analysis.BMC research notes · 2022Article
- Letter to the Editor: "The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the initiation of interventional clinical trials conducted in intensive care units".Journal of critical care · 2022Article
- Trends and variation in data quality and availability on the European Union Clinical Trials Register: A cross-sectional study.Clinical trials (London, England) · 2022Article
- Characteristics analysis for clinical study design relating to COVID-19 based on the database of ClinicalTrials.gov.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2022Article
- Therapeutic role of immunomodulators during the COVID-19 pandemic- a narrative review.Postgraduate medicine · 2022Review
- Executable network of SARS-CoV-2-host interaction predicts drug combination treatments.NPJ digital medicine · 2022Article
- Article
- Article
- Results availability and timeliness of registered COVID-19 clinical trials: interim cross-sectional results from the DIRECCT study.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Clinical research methodology process: what is changing with COVID-19?European heart journal supplements : journal of the European Society of Cardiology · 2021Article
- One year on: The impact of COVID-19 on clinical research.European journal of internal medicine · 2021Article
- Making trials part of good clinical care: lessons from the RECOVERY trial.Future healthcare journal · 2021Article
- Delays in reporting and publishing trial results during pandemics: cross sectional analysis of 2009 H1N1, 2014 Ebola, and 2016 Zika clinical trials.BMC medical research methodology · 2021Article
- Multicentre randomised double-blinded placebo-controlled trial of favipiravir in adults with mild COVID-19.BMJ open · 2021Article
- How the clinical research community responded to the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis of the COVID-19 clinical studies in ClinicalTrials.gov.JAMIA open · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo characterise current COVID-19-related research activities.
designCross-sectional analysis.
settingClinical trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov testing interventions relevant to COVID-19. DATA SOURCES: ClinicalTrials.gov was searched for COVID-19 and related terms to identify trials registered between 1 December 2019 and 1 May 2020 that test interventions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
main outcome measuresWe classified trials according to intervention type, and report key trial characteristics including recruitment status, location, funder type, target enrolment number, intervention model (single group, randomised or sequential assignment) and projected completion date.
resultsOf the 630 identified clinical trials related to COVID-19, 509 (81%) involved the study of drugs or biological agents. Of these trials of drugs and biologics, 305 (60%) use an open-label design, 43 (8%) are single blinded (participant only) and 161 (32%) are double blinded (participant and investigator). 94 (18%) of the drug/biological trials are non-randomised. Either hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine is administered as part of the study protocol in 152 (30%) of the drug/biological trials. The total planned enrolment for these hydroxychloroquine/chloroquine trials is over 200 000 participants, which represents 65% of the total planned enrolment for all registered trials of drugs or biologics. There are also at least 25 registered trials of azithromycin (n=53), convalescent plasma (n=38), lopinavir/ritonavir (n=30), stem cell treatments (n=29) and tocilizumab (n=25). 142 trials were registered in the first 3 months of 2020, and 488 trials were registered between 1 April and 1 May 2020.
conclusionsThese findings demonstrate a robust research response to the COVID-19 pandemic, though many of the currently planned and ongoing trials focus on a small number of potential therapies, and many also lack essential design features and power necessary to provide accurate treatment effect estimates.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.