The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presents an unprecedented challenge to rapidly develop new diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic strategies. Currently, thousands of new COVID-19 patients are quickly enrolled in clinical studies. We aimed to investigate the characteristics of the COVID-19 studies registered in ClinicalTrials.gov and report the extent to which they have incorporated features that are desirable for generating high-quality evidence. On April 28, 2020, a total of 945 studies on COVID-19 have been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov; 586 studies are interventional (62.0%), the most frequent allocation scheme is the parallel group assignment (437; 74.6%), they are open-label and the most common primary purpose is the research on treatment. Too many of the ongoing interventional studies have a small expected sample size and may not generate credible evidence at completion. This might lead to a delayed recognition of effective therapies that are urgently needed, and a waste of time and resources. In the COVID-19 pandemic era, it is crucial that the adoption of new diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic strategies is based upon evidence coming from well-designed, adequately powered and carefully conducted clinical trials.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, 2019-nCoV, 2019 novel coronavirus, 【초록키워드】 Treatment, coronavirus disease, pandemic, Open-label, COVID-19 pandemic, diagnostic, clinical trials, Characteristics, Research, Therapeutic strategies, Clinical studies, therapeutic strategy, Evidence, COVID-19 patient, Sample size, parallel group, Registered, effective therapy, resources, feature, enrolled, develop, generate, conducted, expected, 【제목키워드】 Research,