On Monday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it opened phase II clinical trials on four potential treatments for long COVID spanning drugs, medical devices, biologics, and other therapies. The trials are a part of the NIH’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative, a $1.5 billion research program launched in 2021 to identify how people recover from COVID-19 as well as those people who are at risk of developing post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC). The initiative also works with patients and clinicians across the country to find ways to both prevent and treat the long-term effects of COVID.
“We know that when patients are suffering, we can never move fast enough,” said acting NIH director Lawrence A. Tabak, DDS, PhD in a press release. “NIH is committed to a highly coordinated and scientifically rigorous approach to find treatments that will provide relief for the millions of people living with long COVID.”