Scientific and Ethical Analysis of 840 Registered COVID-19 Clinical Studies / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

From January 23, 2020 to May 29, 2021, there were 17,550 clinical research registrations on the China Clinical Trial Registry Platform. The index of clinical research on COVID-19 showed 840 registrations, accounting for 4.79% (840/17 550) of the total registrations. According to the trend chart of epidemic development, 487 clinical research projects of COVID-19 registered from January 23, 2020 to March 18, 2020 were set as the early stage of epidemic discovery in the region, the following 15 months were divided into stable initial stage, stable later stage and the later stage of the first wave of domestic epidemic every five months. The proportion of COVID-19 research projects registered in each stage was 29.80%, 5.87%, 0.76% and 1.15% of all registered projects respectively. The registration ratios of COVID-19 in each clinical stage was 57.98%, 28.81%, 5.95% and 7.26% respectively. Intervention studies were 61.60% (300/487) in the early stage of the epidemic, and most of them were in biological agent and drug therapy, which were 40.49%, 50.00% and 73.77% respectively in the later stages. Stable initial stage biological agent projects decreased. Then the vaccine research program became a focused research program. Among the 58 registration projects involving vaccines, 25 were clinical trials of vaccines in different stages, with the major research units being biopharmaceutical companies. Of the 487 clinical studies registered in the early stage, 10.23%(50/487) were withdrawn, of which 38 were intervention treatment studies, most notably drug studies (17) and blood biological products (16), but they were still registered in the stable initial stage. It is necessary to reflect on the scientific and ethical nature of early COVID-19 clinical trials or research, including whether the three core values of equal respect, help to alleviate pain and fairness can be achieved. Whether the "ethics review meeting should pay special attention to the scientificity, safety, fairness, subject protection, informed consent documents and informed consent process, avoidance of conflicts of interest, etc. of clinical trials or research" has been implemented. Competent government departments at all levels and all clinical medical research institutions should organize evaluation, and then establish an effective evaluation mechanism when new clinical trials or research projects are registered in the future.