Britain Wins Rare Compliment for Its Leadership in the Race for Life-Saving COVID-19 Drug Test

Disdained for its delay in lockdown and unsuccessful testing programs, the United Kingdom was announced unexpectedly as the recipient of an abrupt bout of excessive commendation for its scientists' initiatives in combating COVID-19.

Tyler Cowen, a leading US economist, wrote in a column, "The Brits are on course to save the world." Meanwhile, a journal quoted leading international researchers have collected compliments on what's known as the British scientists' "anti-COVID-19 work."

The main target of these praises has been the Recovery trial of the UK, a drug-testing program that, online health news indicated, has engaged input from over 3,000 health professionals working with "12,000 patients with COVID-19" in more than 170 hospitals nationwide.

The tests were reportedly carried out in intensive care units jam-packed with severely sick patients whose numbers were increased to high levels due to the UK's COVID-19 lockdown.

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A Development the UK Can Be Proud Of 

Such outcomes though, according to reports, have changed the pandemic practice across the world. Relatively, low-priced treatment for inflammation has been found to be a life-saver for patients who are seriously sick.

Two much-promoted therapies, on the other hand, have reportedly been seen to be not helpful when it comes to addressing the disease. 

Oxford University's Martin Landray, also one of the founders of Recovery, said, this has been "an extraordinary four months, and the said inflammation treatment developed "is something that the UK can be proud of."

Landray is an expert when it comes to the development of large clinical tests. His co-founder, Peter Horby, also from Oxford University, on the other hand, is an infectious disease specialist who was part of COVID-19 drug tests in Wuhan, China last winter, when this killer virus first developed.

The trials ended, though, when the number of cases dropped as the Chinese officials implemented their hard lockdown. Simultaneously cases started to appear in Europe and, according to Horby, he realized "to start work here."

Development of 'Recovery'

The emergence of cases in Europe prompted Horby and Landray to join forces and develop Recovery or "Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy."

Landray explained they realized, doctors would, later on, look for treatments once cases began to pour into hospitals. If they did not immediately begin tests, the co-founder continued, they would never know if the medicines used "were any good."  

It took the pair nine days from drafting their initial rules to register their first patient. Typically, said Horby, "it takes nine months to do that." To effectively achieve a good measure, the two signed 10,000 patients up within eight weeks.

The thousands of enrollees, the Recovery founders said, were given a placebo or a drug. No one among them knew which of the two treatments they were taking. The results then were compared, and the treatment's effectiveness revealed.

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Initial Findings

After three months from setting up operations, the pair produced its initial results. The result revealed was for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug. This medicine was widely promoted by a lot of politicians, including Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonoro, and Emmanuel Macron, who all believed the drug could "save the world."

Nevertheless, the recovery team found the said belief disagreeable. Their tests found that hydroxychloroquine did not provide any help to COVID-19 patients. After 10 days, it was reported that the Emergency Use Authorization of the drug in the US was withdrawn.  

This, Landraw said, was substantial progress. Meaning, hospitals globally, he continued, "No longer needed to waste resources" on treatments that are not helpful or useless, and could cease from misleadingly raising the expectations of patients.

Then, there were two anti-HIV agents, lopinavir and ritonavir therapies combined, which were also advertised as a potent treatment for COVID-19. 

According to reports, Recovery "compared 1,596 patients who received the drugs" with 3,376 patients who did not receive them. 

As a result, they did not find any considerable difference in mortality rates between the two patient groups, and this, the founders said, was "another disappointment." 

Lastly, the team turned to dexamethasone, an affordable steroid used to fight inflammation and cure arthritis. This was found to lower death rates by one-third among patients who needed ventilators in the ICUs. 

The drug costs only £5 for each course, and it is widely available, Landray said, adding, this was "an incredible surprise," not to mention, a big step forward.

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