The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) have released a funding announcement, sharing their aim to provide funding for research into repurposing existing pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical treatments towards the treatment of ME/CFS, Long Covid, and other post infection syndromes. Dr Charles Shepherd, MEA Hon. Medical Adviser, provides comm
Extracts from the announcement:
Research specification:
We are keen to accelerate progress in the treatment and management of post-acute infection syndromes and associated conditions, including long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
This funding opportunity is a key component of the NIHR’s recognition of the need for further research-based evidence related to the diagnosis, management and treatment of post-acute infections and associated conditions.
Specifically, the MRC-NIHR Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) Programme wishes to fund a project which will accelerate the necessary learning and preparation to explore the feasibility of a phase 2 platform, and to establish the optimum approach for phase 2 platform architecture that tests multiple repurposed pharmaceutical interventions and/or non-pharmacological interventions and devices.
The phase 2 platform will be UK-led and will aim to test multiple different therapies simultaneously and efficiently.
In preparation, the NIHR Innovation Observatory (NIHRIO) has undertaken a rapid horizon scan to identify repurposed medicines in clinical development for the treatment of ME/CFS, as well as related conditions such as long COVID and fibromyalgia.
The horizon scan focused on medicines with a UK licence that are in phase 2 or 3 clinical trials, with trial registration dates from 2020 onwards.
MEA Comment:
This announcement links in to the section on research in the DHSC Delivery Plan – which we hope will now be published without any further delay.
I have been very critical of parts of the DHSC Delivery Plan. However, this appears to be a genuine attempt by NIHR to stimulate interest in setting up clinical trials involving the repurposing of drugs.
In other words, instead of trying to find a completely new drug to treat ME/CFS, which is very difficult in our current state of knowledge, we need to make use of existing biomedical research findings to investigate the use of drugs that are already being used to treat other conditions that have some degree of overlap with ME/CFS.
Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS
