US, India lead in COVID-19 clinical trials benefitted by large patient pools: GlobalData

The US is running the highest number of COVID-19 clinical trials in the world, according to the clinical trial database by GlobalData. As of early March, the country saw 823 trials. This was followed by India at 491.

Scotty Chung-Siu, MPH, Senior Analyst at GlobalData, comments, “While the number of trials in India is expected to continue to increase steeply, the US is still miles ahead. The high number of cases in these countries provides a wealth of patients for COVID-19 trials.”

China, Iran, and Spain round out the top five countries by number of clinical trials, with more than 200 each.

Chung-Siu continues, “China has had the slowest increase in the number of COVID-19 clinical trials. The number of active trials in China has slowly increased from 318 to 488 over the course of the pandemic – an almost flat line compared to the US and India. The low number of cases in China provides less opportunity to run trials.”

“Although some vaccines have already received Emergency Use Authorizations, including those developed by Pfizer and Moderna, research will continue for additional COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.”