News

Australasian COVID-19 Trial (ASCOT) reached an important milestone on Tuesday, 21 September 2021, randomising the 1000th patient into the study. To reach this milestone since the first enrolment in mid-February 2021, is a commendable feat and would not be possible without the hard work from all ASCOT collaborators and the dedicated site teams.

A special thankyou to the team at the George Institute who have managed and coordinated a large proportion of these enrolments, which have come from sites in India. Congratulations to Maharaja Agrasen Superspeciality Hospital in India, who were the site that randomised the 1000th patient. 

We would also like to thank other ASCOT collaborators and management teams including:

• Hunter Medical Research Institute and the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research for managing the sites in NSW and QLD
• Middlemore Clinical trials for managing sites and regulatory approvals in New Zealand
• Spiral for designing and running the study database
• All the investigators and individual collaborators who have dedicated countless hours to committee and working group meetings and providing their expertise towards the study design.   
• All the ASCOT sites teams who have put in a huge amount of work to get their site up and running and enrolling patients for an adaptive platform trial during a pandemic.

We recognise that this milestone, in part, is reflective of the devastation of this virus and how it has impacted so many people across the world. As we continue to accrue data in ASCOT, we hope to contribute to a growing body of knowledge of how we can best treat those with COVID-19 and ease the burden this virus places on individuals, communities, institutions and healthcare systems across the world now and into the future.