Entrepreneur Kavita Oberoi OBE is appealing to fellow regional businesses of all sizes to play their part in helping to find new early treatments for COVID-19.
The founder and Managing Director of Oberoi Consulting and Oberoi Business Hub in Pride Park, Derby, has been approached by Professor Mahendra Patel, one of the national leads for the Panoramic Trial at Oxford University.
She was asked to help in raising the profile of the clinical trial – the world’s first to be using new and licensed antiviral agents – and in recruiting volunteers needed in the search for the early treatment of COVID-19 and is asking the local business community for their support.
Panoramic (Platform adaptive trial of novel antivirals for early treatment of COVID-19 in the community) is a UK-wide clinical study sponsored by the University of Oxford and funded by the National Institute for Health Research to find out in which people new antiviral treatments for COVID-19 in the community reduce the need for hospital admission and recover sooner.
The research team need 10,600 volunteers who are aged 50 and over or aged 18 and over with underlying health conditions who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past five days and are experiencing symptoms.
Involvement in the study will include either receiving standard NHS care or a short course of a new licensed antiviral treatment to be taken by mouth. All information, including any treatment, is couriered directly to the patient’s home along with a symptom diary to record symptoms.
Mrs Oberoi said: “Derby is renowned as the City of Innovation and many local and regional businesses have been actively involved in the response to COVID-19. In the East Midlands we are also fortunate to have a wide range of major employers as well as a strong SME community with solid networks.
“Having been approached by the research team, I thought the business leaders and local employers could be an ideal communication vehicle to get behind this important work by sharing information with their colleagues, employees and contacts about the clinical trial and to encourage anyone eligible to volunteer.”
Professor Mahendra Patel, Pharmacy, Inclusion and Diversity Lead on the Panoramic Trial, added: “This is a government high priority UK-wide clinical trial to rapidly evaluate MHRA-licensed new antiviral treatments that could help clinically vulnerable people with COVID-19 recover sooner, prevent the need for hospital admission and ease the burden on the NHS.”
For further information, visit www.panoramictrial.org or call 08081 560017 and business leaders wanting information to share with their workforce, should email admin@oberoi-consulting.com
