The effectiveness of early colchicine administration in patients over 60 years old with high risk of developing severe pulmonary complications associated with coronavirus pneumonia SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): study protocol for an investigator-driven randomized controlled clinical trial in primary health care—COLCHICOVID study

BACKGROUND: There is no strong evidence that any drug is beneficial either for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 disease or for post-exposure prophylaxis. Therefore, clinical research is crucial to generate results and evaluate strategies against COVID-19. Primary care (PC) centers, the first level of care in the health system, are in a favorable position to carry out clinical trials (CD), as they work with a large volume of patients with varied profiles (from acute to chronic pathologies). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for hospital admission and mortality is higher in people > 60 years. Therefore, this is a target population to try to reduce the serious complications and lethality of COVID pneumonia and to avoid overloading the hospital system. Given the pharmacological properties of colchicine (anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic, possible inhibition of viral replication, and inhibitory effect on coagulation activation), early treatment with colchicine may reduce the rate of death and serious pulmonary complications from COVID-19 in vulnerable patients. METHODS: The COLCHICOVID study is a randomized, multicenter, controlled, open-label parallel group (2:1 ratio), phase III clinical trial to investigate the efficacy of early administration of colchicine in reducing the development of severe pulmonary complications associated with COVID-19 infection in patients over 60 years of age with at-risk comorbidities. DISCUSSION: This is a pragmatic clinical trial, adapted to usual clinical practice. The demonstration that early administration of colchicine has clinical effectiveness in reducing the complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a population highly susceptible may mitigate the health crisis and prevent the collapse of the health system in the successive waves of the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, colchicine is a well-known medicine, simple to use in the primary care setting and with a low cost for the health system. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.govNCT04416334. Registered on 4 June 2020. Protocol version: v 3.0, dated 22 September 2020.