Researchers in the School of Mathematical Sciences have been working on trial design for new treatments for COVID-19.

These trials have found that there are new treatments that work both well and reliably using small to moderate test sample sizes. Trials that instead use very large samples sizes are time consuming and far less cost effective.

Dr Helen Barnett, Dr Andrew Titman published a paper recently with their findings alongside colleagues from the University of Cambridge

In searching for new and effective treatments for COVID-19, the initial emphasis was on changing or re-purposing existing treatments for speed, in finding a working solution. However, these approaches are not necessarily the best treatments possible. This new research focuses on a platform that aims to investigate treatments that have the best efficacy, better than the ones already in use for COVID-19. This is the AGILE platform and has been used to analyse both individual treatments and combinations of treatments to find the best solution.

This paper sets out the design of the AGILE platform trial, which assessed the safety and efficacy of new potential treatments for COVID-19. A novel trial design was developed to fit the needs of drug development during a pandemic, such as needing to assess an unknown number of comparator treatments, assessing the safety and efficacy in the same trial and doing so in as short a time as possible while still meeting all other requirements.

The trial design was used to assess novel COVID-19 treatments. The main achievement of the group is the impact that research had in bringing new treatments to market. The trial platform evaluated five new treatments, including Xevudy and Lagevrio, which successfully passed through the trial design on their way to becoming licensed treatments for alleviating the symptoms of COVID-19.

Dr Helen Barnett said "This piece of research was out of necessity done in a very short space of time at the beginning of the first COVID 19 lockdown and so was very challenging for a number of reasons. Whilst the ongoing impact of the AGILE platform is substantial, it is also invaluable to now be sharing the methodology behind it."

This collaborative piece of work with Professor Thomas Jaki and Dr Pavel Mozgunov from the University of Cambridge could make a big impact to the treatment of COVID-19. This trial design could additionally be used in the future for the treatment of other infectious diseases.