Colchicine shows promise as a treatment for at-home COVID-19 patients -- Recruitment of participants in the COLCORONA phase 3 study likely to end in 2020

MONTREAL, Nov. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) today announced that the COLCORONA clinical trial will continue to recruit non-hospitalized adult patients with COVID-19 as recommended by the independent data monitoring committee (DMC), following a second interim analysis.

"With the dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases across the world, it is becoming even more critical that we continue to investigate treatments that can not only help those hospitalized with severe disease, but also those with less severe symptoms who are able to remain at home," said Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the Research Center at MHI, Professor of Medicine at the University of Montreal, and COLCORONA principal investigator. "We aim at completing patient recruitment in this large study within the next month and hope that colchicine will reduce the risk of COVID-19 complications."

COLCORONA is a contact-free, at-home, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study run out of Canada, the United States, Europe, South America, and South Africa. It aims to determine if colchicine can reduce the risk of serious complications linked to COVID-19. This is one of the few current large-scale studies of COVID-19 in which non-hospitalized patients can participate. Participants and physicians interested in COLCORONA can call the hotline at 1-877-536-6837.

COLCORONA is coordinated by the Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC) and funded by the Government of Quebec, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH). CGI, Dacima and Pharmascience are also collaborators of COLCORONA.

The Montreal Heart Institute and its partners worldwide would like to thank all the investigators and the thousands of participants for their continued participation in the COLCORONA study.

For more information about the study, visit www.colcorona.net.

About the Montreal Heart Institute

Founded in 1954, the Montreal Heart Institute constantly aims for the highest standards of excellence in the cardiovascular field through its leadership in clinical and basic research, ultra-specialized care, professional training, and prevention. It houses the largest research center in Canada, the largest cardiovascular prevention center in the country, and the largest cardiovascular genetics center in Canada. The Institute is affiliated with the University of Montreal and has more than 2000 employees, including 245 doctors and more than 85 researchers.

About the Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC)

The Montreal Health Innovations Coordinating Center (MHICC) is a leading academic clinical research organization and an integral part of the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI). The MHICC possesses an established network of collaborators in over 4500 clinical sites in more than 35 countries. It has specific expertise in precision medicine, low-cost high-quality clinical trials, and drug repurposing.

About Pharmascience

Founded in 1983, Pharmascience Inc. is the largest pharmaceutical employer in Quebec. With its head office located in Montreal and its 1,500 employees, Pharmascience Inc. is a private, full-service pharmaceutical company with deep roots in Canada, and whose global reach is growing, in part thanks to the distribution of its products in more than 60 countries. Ranked 56th among the top 100 Canadian investors in research and development (R&D) thanks to $43 million investment in 2018, Pharmascience Inc. is the 4th largest manufacturer of over-the-counter generic drugs in the country. www.pharmascience.com

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI is one of the world's largest information technology (IT) and management consulting firms. From hundreds of locations around the world, CGI offers a complete portfolio of services and solutions: strategic IT and management consulting services, systems integration services, intellectual property solutions as well as IT and business process management services in delegated mode. www.cgi.com/canada

About Dacima

Founded in 2006, Dacima Software Inc. is a leading innovator in Electronic Data Capture (EDC) software for clinical research. Dacima's EDC software, Dacima Clinical Suite, is a fully feature EDC software application with integrated modules for patient randomization (IWRS), supply management, ePRO, eDiary, medical coding and eConsent. Dacima's flexible and highly configurable EDC platforms allow for the design of all types of study designs including clinical trials, patient registries, observational studies  and  web surveys  through an intuitive user-friendly web interface. www.dacimasoftware.com

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