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Over 24,000 people in the West Midlands contribute to urgent Covid-19 research

More than 24,000 people from the West Midlands are taking part in the most urgent Covid-19 research studies.

NHS hospitals, GPs and care homes in the West Midlands have played a vital role in delivering studies at pace and scale, enabling patients to benefit from the latest treatments for Covid-19 - in addition to helping tens of thousands of people gain early access to potential vaccines through trials running across the region.

Professor Jeremy Kirk, Clinical Director of the NIHR Clinical Research Network West Midlands said: ‘The incredible number of participants in our region shows the remarkable effort to tackle the pandemic. We are very grateful to all those who have stepped up to help us run these trials.’

Professor David Loughton CBE, Chief Executive of The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, which hosts the Network, said: ‘The ongoing effort to research vaccines and treatments for Covid-19 relies on volunteers coming forward to take part in the studies and we cannot thank them enough.’

As soon as the potential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was realised, the NIHR acted swiftly to roll out and deliver a range of urgent public health (UPH) research into the disease.

Since then, the NIHR has supported 83 UPH studies into Covid-19 - investigating a range of potential treatments, vaccines, observational studies to learn more about the disease, and research into new diagnostic technology.

NIHR and NHS supported research has already led to the world's first effective Covid-19 treatments - corticosteroids dexamethasone and hydrocortisone. Many more new studies, investigating some of the world’s most exciting Covid-19 treatments and prophylactics to prevent disease, are continually being added to the NIHR’s UPH research Portfolio. These include cutting edge studies into new monoclonal antibodies, inhaled antiviral treatments, and a range of promising potential vaccine candidates.

Despite achieving this impressive recruitment milestone - the NIHR is stressing the need to maintain the speed of recruitment and the high uptake of participants to Covid-19 research.

Find out more at: www.nihr.ac.uk/covid-studies/

Notes to editors

Anyone living in the UK can sign up online to take part in the trials through the NHS, giving permission for researchers to contact you if they think you’re a good fit.

Once you sign up, you can withdraw at any time and request that your details be removed from the COVID-19 vaccine research registry. The process takes about five minutes to complete.