eMed has entered a partnership with Scripps Research Translational Institute to advance a study to assess Covid-19 rebound following treatment.
Funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the at-home study will enrol up to 800 Covid-19-patients.
It will assess how frequently and why some patients who receive Pfizer’s oral anti-viral pill, Paxlovid, or who recuperate naturally from the virus ‘rebound’ to having symptoms or test positive for Covid-19.
People who use the Telehealth Kit of eMed to test and get a quick medical assessment for treatment with the oral antiviral can take part in the study.
Each subject who receives the kit will be observed for two weeks for viral clearance and symptoms or disease rebound.
The study was created after observing Covid-19 patients reporting symptoms or the return of virus positivity following administration of oral antiviral treatments.
The initial data from the study is anticipated to be available in the coming weeks.
The NIH funding for Scripps will aid in expediting and progressing the study to enrol more subjects and to more precisely assess if the rebound is linked to specific viral immune responses or is viral variant dependent.
eMed chief science officer Michael Mina said: “The importance of understanding how frequently people who are treated for Covid-19 recover completely or rebound back to virus positivity cannot be overstated.
“Effective treatments for Covid-19 are among the most important tools humans have to get out of this pandemic.
“Knowing who stands to benefit the most from treatment, and knowing if rebound of symptoms is associated with different health outcomes or onward transmission is of massive individual and public health importance.”
