Analysis of the WHO ICTRP for novel coronavirus clinical trial registrations

Up-to-date information on the current progress made in the research and development to control the global COVID-19 pandemic is important. The study aimed to analyze the clinical trial characteristics and vaccine development progress of the new Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) registered with the World Health Organization International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP). A comprehensive search of COVID-19 clinical trials since the establishment of the ICTRP to June 11, 2020, was conducted to record and analyze relevant characteristics. Chi-Squared test was used to compare the statistical differences between different research types, interventions, and sources. A total of 3282 COVID-19 clinical trials in 17 clinical trial registration centers were registered with the WHO ICTRP. The main research sources for the present study were ClinicalTrials.gov and ChiCTR. There were significant differences in the parameters of study location (P = .000), number of participants (P = .000), study duration (P = .001), research stage (P = .000), randomization procedure (P = .000), and blinding method (P = .000) between the 2 registration sources. There were significant differences in all the parameters between different kinds of intervention methods. Hydroxychloroquine, plasma therapy, and Xiyanping injection were the high-frequency research drugs used. Ten different vaccine studies were registered under phases I-II. Amongst the studies researched, heterogeneity existed for various parameters. Differences in the type of study, interventions, and registration sources of the studies led to significant differences in certain parameters of the COVID-19 clinical trials. The statistics of high-frequency drugs and the progress of vaccine trials may provide an informative reference for the prevention and control of COVID-19.