NIH Halts Blood Thinner Trial Enrollment for Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has paused enrollment of critically ill COVID-19 patients in a phase 3 trial of various blood thinners, one of three international trials evaluating whether a full or lower dose of anticoagulants in hospitalized COVID-19 patients is more effective.

The anticoagulants are meant to prevent blood clots that can cause heart attacks and strokes, but researchers found an increased risk of bleeding in patients who received a full dose and the treatments didn’t reduce the need for organ support, NIH said.

The NIH’s National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute, which is conducting the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines-4 (ACTIV-4) trial, said that enrollment will continue for moderately ill hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Two other international blood thinner trials have also paused enrollment for critically ill COVID-19 patients — the Randomized, Embedded, Multi-factorial Adaptive Platform trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP) and the Anti-thrombotic Therapy to Ameliorate Complications of COVID-19 (ATTACC) trials. ― Jason Scott