UK’s ACCORD Initiative Aims to Speed Trials of COVID-19 Treatments

The UK has launched a nationwide initiative to accelerate development clinical trials of COVID-19 treatments.

The Accelerating COVID-19 Research and Development (ACCORD) platform targets phase 2 trials to fast-track potential treatments.

ACCORD’s objective is to rapidly move promising drugs through early-stage trials into the UK’s large-scale COVID-19 studies.

Six drugs will initially enter the program. BerGenBio’s investigational cancer treatment bemcentinib was the first treatment selected. It is currently being tested in a trial of 120 subjects at six UK centers. The company anticipates that the first results will be available within a few months.

Two AstraZeneca drugs have also been chosen for evaluation under the program, AZ’s cancer treatment Calquence (acalabrutinib) and an investigational diabetic kidney disease treatment MEDI3506. — Jordan Williams