Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Wilber Sabiiti, co-chair of the coalition's Virology, Immunology and Diagnostics Working Group, makes a case for the need to strengthen context-specific evidence generation to guide pandemic strategies. In this Viewpoint, he looks at diverging approaches in Uganda and Tanzania, in their use of national lockdowns.

The COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition is calling for nominations for members of a new Therapeutics Working Group. In low-resource settings, there is relatively little COVID-19 therapeutics research taking place. There is also uncertainty on the future affordability and availability of any proven therapeutics in such settings. A platform to discuss COVID-19 therapeutics in low-resource settings and promote relevant research and priorities would be beneficial. A new coalition working group has been proposed, to fill this gap.

Following the coalition’s efforts to increase the representation of researchers from low- and middle-income countries in the ACT-Accelerator Therapeutics Partnership, four coalition members have joined its workstreams. Meet Dr Nada Melhem, from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, who joined workstream 1 which focuses on rapid evidence assessment of therapeutic candidates.

Excessive bureaucracy has been identified as an obstacle to the conduct of clinical research in many settings. Complex requirements and lengthy processes often delay and sometimes prevent the initiation of research work. In this survey, we sought to gain high-level insights into how researchers and health professionals regard the effects of the various bureaucratic processes and their impact on the conduct of COVID- 19 clinical research.

The COVID Moonshot, a non-profit, open-science consortium of scientists from around the world dedicated to the discovery of globally affordable and easily-manufactured antiviral drugs against COVID-19 and future viral pandemics.

This third webinar in a series on vaccines by the coalition’s Social Science Working Group brought together experts to discuss issues related to research on vaccines and deployment during COVID-19 pandemic and past epidemics and share lessons learned for building trust to improve COVID-19 vaccination uptake.

Coalition Ethics Working Group members Ms Katharine Wright and Dr Leonardo de Castro recently participated in the 14th Annual Philippines Health Research Week under the theme ‘Health R&D in the New Normal: Moving Towards Universal Health Care’. A key outcome of the meeting was the adoption of the Ethical Compass as a guide for Research Ethics Committee processes in the Philippines.

The Virology, Immunology and Diagnostics Working Group organized a webinar to discuss the role of biorepositories and efforts underway to increase COVID-19 sample preservation and storage, as well as the sequencing capacity in LMICs and strategies for increasing it.

Building on concerns of low access to and availability of diagnostics for COVID-19 in resource-limited settings, a survey was carried out to provide initial insight into the country-specific landscape of diagnostics. This survey report highlights the current tests available in different countries, obstacles to access and availability of diagnostics, as well as possible solutions to the identified obstacles as perceived by respondents.  

Coalition member and co-founder DNDi has just issued a policy report, ‘Another triumph of science, but defeat for access? Ensuring innovation and equitable access for COVID-19 treatments, other infectious diseases, and future pandemics’.  The report urges the international community to learn the early lessons – and avoid repeating the mistakes – of the past year when it comes to innovation of and access to COVID-19 therapeutics, a deeply neglected area within the COVID-19 response.