European Clinical Research Alliance on Infectious Diseases - PRIMary care adaptive platform trial for pandemics and Epidemics

European citizens affected by COVID-19 have been well-served by landmark clinical trials in hospitals that have found treatments that save many lives. However, there are fewer opportunities for people in the community to contribute to the urgent mission of finding treatments that speed recovery, and reduce the need for hospital admission in the first place. Evidence-based therapeutics for use in primary care have the potential for considerable reach and impact on individual suffering and functioning, as well as on the sustainability of health services. ECRAID-Prime, a European Adaptive Platform Trial (APT) of therapeutics for patients with COVID-19 and potentially COVID-like illness in primary care will build on many years of EU investment in infrastructure for primary care trials and a mature primary care research network that has pioneered novel, efficient, platform clinical trial designs. In the winter of 2022/23, respiratory viruses will be co-circulating and disease aetiology can’t be distinguished solely on clinical grounds. Treatments with potentially broad antiviral activity will be most beneficial if started early in the disease trajectory. For those treatments patients with syndromic COVID-like-illness might be included. ECRAID-Prime, with a focus on early phase studies of safety and efficacy of exciting candidate treatments for COVID-19 and COVID-like illness will be rapidly set up. Its goal is to test at least four candidate treatments, identifying suitability for inclusion in the next phases of research, and so leading to critical additions to the primary care therapeutic armamentarium against COVID-19 and COVID-like illness. ECRAID-Prime will additionally help complete the vison for a lasting, integrated, comprehensive and sustainable European clinical research preparedness and response capacity, Ecraid, that will provide a full, integrated suite of international priority clinical trials in intensive care units, hospital wards, and now in primary care as well.