Today, July 31,2023, the National Institutes of Health launched and is opening enrollment for phase 2 clinical trials that will evaluate at least four potential treatments for long COVID, with additional clinical trials to test at least seven more treatments expected in the coming months. Treatments will include drugs, biologics, medical devices and other therapies. The trials are designed to evaluate multiple treatments simultaneously to identify more swiftly those that are effective. Part of the NIH’s Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative(link is external), the trials were informed by findings from other RECOVER research over the past two years and focus on several of the symptoms described as most burdensome by people experiencing long COVID. With its complementary research efforts, RECOVER has positioned NIH to design and conduct trials that have the potential to provide long COVID patients who experience varying symptoms with relief sooner than any individual study can alone.
