The Mail on Sunday

Drug giants to restart medicine trials

- By Alex Lawson

BRITISH drug companies are ready to restart clinical trials of medicines for lifethreat­ening conditions unrelated to coronaviru­s.

Haseeb Ahmad – boss of the UK arm of Swiss drugs giant Novartis and president of the Associatio­n of the British Pharmaceut­ical Industry – told The Mail on Sunday that firms are discussing resurrecti­ng trials after a year in which efforts were focused on battling the virus. He said: ‘Other clinical trials came to a bit of a pause and they need to be restarted.

‘We’re investigat­ing medicines [for conditions other than Covid] where there is a high rate of mortality – there is a high level of urgency to restart those trials.’

Novartis is entering the final stages of clinical trials of a potential new Covid treatment. A study of 432 patients globally, including in the UK, is evaluating a repurposed cancer drug which may prevent severe respirator­y problems. The results are expected within a few months.

Another Novartis study of a potential Covid treatment failed to progress from trials last month.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom