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By Connor Gunn

More health professionals to be involved in clinical trials for COVID-19 treatments

May 27, 2020 | 3:32 PM

OTTAWA, ON- Health Canada announced another step to accelerate access to health products for COVID-19 treatments.

To date, the agency has approved 37 clinical trials to treat the virus in the form of therapies and vaccines.

In an attempt to speed up these efforts, Minister of Health Patty Hajdu will allow a more flexible process for clinical trials related to COVID-19.

This will not affect the safety of participants or the reliability of the trials’ findings.

In a release by Health Canada, the steps will include:

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• Allow a wider range of health professionals, such as nurse practitioners, to be involved in running clinical trials. Under current regulations, only physicians and dentists can conduct clinical trials for drugs;
• Allow a wider range of investigators, such as physicians, to be involved in running clinical trials for medical devices. Under current regulations, only manufacturers can conduct clinical trials for medical devices;
• Reduce the burden associated with labeling and record-keeping requirements for clinical trials involving drugs that are already marketed for other indications and are being studied to treat COVID-19;
• Enable multiple-stream clinical trials to continue even when one stream has been stopped; and
• Enable more clinical trials by allowing trials where direct interaction with the participant is not feasible, for example when participants who live in remote locations are unable to travel.

“We have made progress against COVID-19 by following public health advice, and we need to keep going. We also know that it will take time before a vaccine or treatments are available, and this is why we are making these changes to help the medical community work as quickly and safely as possible.”

Hajdu finished off by saying until there is a vaccine, we as Canadians need to follow health regulations.