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Italy Opens Up On Trial Woes In A Pandemic

 
• By Vibha Sharma

Italian medicines agency chief Nicola Magrini recounts the problems AIFA faced and the lessons it learned through its work at the height of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy. 

Milan_March_2020
Italy Was Among The Worst Hit Countries By Covid-19 in The EU • Source: Shutterstock

Italy’s medicines agency, AIFA, says its initial experience of dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak was difficult as opportunities to run large informative trials in the early days were missed.

Although there is now agreement on the need for large randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for generating meaningful clinical evidence, enforcing this approach in the early phase of the pandemic was “not easy,” AIFA head Nicola Magrini said on 29 June

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