Coronavirus: China pulls the plug on wasteful, unnecessary research into Covid-19
- As scientists around the world race to develop medicines to fight the deadly disease, Beijing is keen to prevent vital resources being squandered on unworthy projects
- Clinical researchers told by science ministry to justify their projects or face having them shut down
In a notice issued on Friday, the Ministry of Science and Technology also said that research projects that “breached existing pharmaceutical regulations, had negative side effects or no obvious efficacy” should be terminated.
As of Sunday morning, there had been more than 1.2 million confirmed cases around the world and close to 65,000 deaths.
Wu Yuanbin, a senior official with the science ministry, raised his concerns about the risk of excessive research back in February.
“Too many drug trials can create the problem of wasting resources, or even affect the treatment of patients,” he said.
“Therefore, when we are researching, the organisation should be improved. We hope to find good drugs in a scientific, orderly and efficient manner.”
As of Saturday, China’s clinical trial registry contained 557 research projects that had the term “Covid-19” in their title. At least four trials registered within the past two days also came with a note saying: “This trial has not been approved by the ethics committee … please contact us and submit approval documents.”
Of the resources in short supply for clinical research, one of the most scarce is people.
“When I asked him what challenges they are finding when trying to implement the trial, he said the single biggest one is recruiting new patients because of the drop in cases,” Aylward said.
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