This will change the way COVID-19 patients are treated around the world, saving thousands of lives by pinpointing cheap and effective drugs during the pandemic, and the UK has been recognized by an international group of scientists for It was widely praised.
But now government support for the UK Recovery Program is set to end. Within weeks, central financing for this program will be suspended. This plan can only continue thanks to funding from a group of US-based philanthropists.
The move has dismayed senior scientists, who say it is another worrying example of the government's failure to change the UK's life sciences sector quickly. “We knew there was great potential for recovery, and it was realized in a very short period of time during the coronavirus pandemic. But now that dream will not come true,” said one of Recovery's co-founders. Professor Peter Horby said:
And now that the pandemic is over, it's not just the value of recovery that's being ignored, Hovey added. “The UK has produced some of the best clinical trials, vaccine development and genomics research in the world, much of which has been scrapped or investment has dried up. But we must remain fully alert to the risks of future pandemics. is needed.”
'Recovery – the Randomized Rating of Covid-19 Therapy' is a drug test that thousands of doctors and nurses took part in treating tens of thousands of Covid-19 patients in hospitals across the UK at the height of the pandemic. It's a program. The trial was conducted in intensive care units and hospital wards filled with critically ill patients.
“In day-to-day routine clinical medicine, it is critical to understand the difference between what is thought to work, what actually works, and what doesn't,” says Recovery's other co-founder. Professor Martin Landray said. “Recovery did just that.”
The show successfully pinpointed four effective drugs, but conclusively showed that eight overhyped drugs were ineffective. For example, the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, widely touted by President Donald Trump as a treatment for COVID-19, turns out to be of no benefit to patients. In contrast, dexamethasone, an inexpensive treatment for inflammation and arthritis, was found to reduce deaths by a third in patients on ventilators in the ICU. No other country could match this achievement.
“Other countries, including Canada and the United States, are so envious of Britain's recovery efforts that they have made it clear they are preparing to spend millions to develop similar plans. “At this time, we seem to be losing interest in the recovery program as a whole. I think that's unfortunate,” Landley added.
The UK's recovery will continue thanks to US charity FullLab, which is dedicated to fighting future influenza outbreaks. Under the new agreement, the program will be expanded to investigate new treatments for influenza and the coronavirus.
The UK government's decision not to continue support for recovery comes against the worrying backdrop of the UK lagging far behind other countries in carrying out clinical research. In clinical research, new drugs are tested on volunteers to make sure they are safe and effective, and to monitor for side effects. For example, Switzerland's Novartis recently halted a large clinical trial of a cholesterol drug in the UK.
“We continue to fall down the trial rankings and are now below Italy, Poland, France and many other countries. The state of the NHS is part of the problem, but it is still worrying.” he said.
“I welcome the government's ambition for the UK to become a scientific power, but what is happening today makes it seem like we are moving in the wrong direction.”
Mr Landley supported this point, warning that it was important for the UK to prepare for the arrival of future pandemics. “Disbanding the military just because it's peacetime won't prepare us for the next war,” he said. observer.