"Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative (QLHC), a non-profit organization focused on uniting patient care and research, and sponsor of the adaptive platform I-SPY 2 Trial™, announced today a unique pre-competitive consortium created for an I-SPY COVID Trial to rapidly identify therapies to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in critically ill COVID-19 patients. Approximately 10-15% of patients infected with SARS-CoV2 develop a severe acute respiratory illness, and nearly 70% of patients admitted to an ICU require ventilation for an average of two weeks; it is estimated over half of those patients will not survive.
'The COVID-19 pandemic has brought Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) to the forefront of public attention. It is one of the deadliest diseases that we face every day in critical care medicine. Patients with COVID-19 who wind up on ventilators have far too high a death rate, and I believe that the I-SPY 2 adaptive platform model will position us to work together to rapidly test agents and approaches that may decrease deaths and time on ventilators," said Carolyn Calfee, MD, Professor of Medicine and Critical Care, University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). "The members of this partnership are all committed and have the experience and desire to help us make a difference for ICU ventilated COVID patients.' "