Rutgers: We Need More Participants For Our Coronavirus Trial

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — As Patch reported in late November, Rutgers University launched a first-of-its-kind trial to see if a certain cocktail of medicines given at the very start of a coronavirus diagnosis can prevent the disease from worsening.

But Rutgers said Tuesday they need more trial participants to sign up.

"We need 70 participants total: 35 will be given the drugs and 35 will be given a placebo," said Dr. Jeffrey Carson, the Rutgers physician in charge of the trial. He said many of the participants already enrolled actually read about the trial because of Patch and other media outlets (the trial was also covered by NJ 101.5 and elsewhere).

"We got a lot of sign-ups through Patch and other media outlets," said Dr. Carson. "But we need more."

Here's who Rutgers is looking for:

• People who have recently been diagnosed with coronavirus within the past six days (not within six days of this article's publication date; six days from when you learned you were positive. Basically, Rutgers is just looking for people who just tested positive, and feel more or less OK — not super sick.
• People who have no symptoms or very little symptoms. People who do not need to be hospitalized and do not currently have any breathing trouble.

If you want to sign up, call 833-874-2281 (1-833-TRIACT1), email triact@rwjms.rutgers.edu or visit www.triact1.com.

Participants will be given a cocktail of drugs that aims to greatly reduce the chance of coronavirus worsening.

"Right now, there is no treatment for coronavirus. If you have it, doctors will just tell you to go home and quarantine and rest," said Dr. Carson. "So if you look at it this way, we're offering a 50 percent chance to be treated."

"This is the only way we can learn whether or not the treatment works," he added. "We'll take anyone who is COVID-positive who does not need to be hospitalized and is not short of breath."

The trial is called Triple Combination Antiviral Coronavirus Therapy (TriACT). The trial is done mostly at one's home. You must be 21 or older.

Those enrolled will be asked to come to the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School on the Rutgers campus for a brief physical exam, and then given a combination of three drugs: nitazoxanide, ribavirin and hydroxychloroquine.

They will be given the drugs in pill form and instructed to take them over a period of just five days. Trial participants will be given equipment to test themselves at home via nasal swab several times, to see if the viral load has reduced over that five-day period. They will then return to Rutgers at days 14 and 28 for a status check.

"Do not be alarmed that we're using hydroxychloroquine," said Dr. Carson. "These three medicines have been shown when used together to be highly effective. This drug has been used for years, and it's been very well tolerated. People are very closely monitored in this study."

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