13 August 2020 - - US-based biosimulation specialist Certara has launched an international registry of healthcare workers to collect information on risk factors for developing COVID-19 and the use of preventative therapies, the company said.

The International Registry of Healthcare Workers Exposed to COVID-19 (UNITY Global) will enable prevention policies to be informed by real-world data collected from 10,000 healthcare workers in low- and middle- income countries.

UNITY Global was funded by a grant from the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.

Healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 outbreak response are at high risk of exposure due to the nature of their work.

As the extent of this outbreak is changing daily, guidance and policies for protecting healthcare workers need to rapidly evolve.

The primary objective of the registry is to assess the association between the use of preventive treatments and the occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19.

The registry first launched in Pakistan on August 3rd and will enroll 10,000 healthcare workers.

Additional countries preparing for launch of the registry include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

The registry collects information on a weekly basis from enrollees across a 12-week period.

Data collection includes medications being taken by healthcare workers, their level of exposure to COVID-19 patients, their health status, and other factors such as the use of personal protective equipment, which would likely mitigate their risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In addition, the registry will record SARS-CoV-2 antibody test results. Certara is using advanced statistical modeling approaches to characterise the influence of these key factors on the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers.

Certara optimises R and D productivity, commercial value and patient outcomes through its unique portfolio of model-informed drug development, regulatory science, and market access solutions.

In fact, 90+% of all novel drugs approved by the US FDA in the past six years were supported by Certara software or services. Its clients include 1,600 global biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and key regulatory agencies across 60 countries.

The Therapeutics Accelerator is an initiative launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome, and Mastercard to speed up the response to the COVID-19 pandemic by identifying, assessing, developing, and scaling up treatments.

Its partners are committed to equitable access, including making products available and affordable in low-resource settings.

The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator will play a catalytic role by accelerating and evaluating new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients with COVID-19 in the immediate term, and other viral pathogens in the longer term.