Liability on the Frontline - Part 1: Emerging risks in Covid-19 clinical trials

From fast-tracked clinical trials to emergency medical devices and telehealth innovations, the Life Sciences sector is providing solutions to Covid-19. This series of reports explores what risks organisations are entering into as they ride to the world’s rescue and how they can protect themselves 

Liability on the Frontline - Part 1: Emerging risks in Covid-19 clinical trials

After the Chinese authorities shared the Covid-19 genome with the international community in January 2020, it took just six weeks for the first candidate vaccine to be shipped for human clinical trials. By 31 July, there were 26 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation and 139 at the preclinical stage, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The pace at which these candidates were prepared shows how far both our understanding of the disease has come and the speed with which science can move.

Alongside this preventative approach, hope can be found in the many potential treatments that are being studied. As of 5 August, 2,906 trials were under way around the world, attempting to halt the progress of Covid-19 at different points along the biochemical pathway it takes into the human body – targeting the virus before it enters cells, preventing it from replicating within cells or reducing its impact on organs, for example. Diverse therapeutic approaches are being trialled, from antivirals to steroids and blood plasma transfers.

However, as the scientific and medical communities throw everything they have at Covid-19, and regulators create greater flexibility around clinical trials, trade-offs are being made between best practice and pragmatism, creating an evolving risk environment. 

Read the full report here: https://www.chubb.com/content/dam/chubb-sites/chubb-com/uk-en/business/life-science-in-the-era-of-pandemics/documents/pdf/5500_chubb_ls_r1_clinical-trials_final.pdf