Combination therapies for COVID-19: An overview of the clinical trials landscape.

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven an unprecedented level of global activity in drug discovery and clinical development for effective therapeutics targeting the coronavirus disease. There are currently 744 therapeutics being tested in 2879 clinical trials globally. Almost 90% of these clinical trials are focused on monotherapies. Combination therapies are the mainstay of antiviral therapeutics to increase the potency of the individual compounds and to combat the rapid evolution of resistance, although combination therapies have inherently complex clinical and regulatory development challenges. Increased understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 lifecycle and COVID-19 pathology provides a scientific rationale for evaluating the effectiveness of different combinations. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current clinical trial landscape for combination therapeutics targeting COVID-19 through weekly scanning of national and international clinical trial registries. Our analysis delves specifically into dual combination therapies in what can be defined as "pivotal clinical trials" (active, randomised, controlled and at least phase II), with a focus on new and repurposed therapeutic candidates that have shown positive signals and/or been granted authorisation for emergency use based on positive efficacy and safety data.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland: An overview of the health service and economic policy response.

OBJECTIVES: To outline the situation in Ireland with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Analyse the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland. Review the key public health and health system responses. RESULTS: Over 1700 people have died with COVID-19 by July 19th while almost 3000 people had been admitted to hospital with COVID-19. A high proportion of the deaths occurred in nursing homes and other residential centres who did not receive sufficient attention during the early phase of the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Ireland's response to the COVID-19 crisis has been comprehensive and timely. Transparency, a commitment to a relatively open data policy, the use of traditional and social media to inform the population, and the frequency of updates from the Department of Health and the Health Services Executive are all commendable and have led to a high level of compliance among the general public with the various non-medical measures introduced by the government.