Professor Martin Landray talks to BBC Radio 4 to mark one year of RECOVERY Trial
Image provided by Wellcome Trust
Senior Research Fellow Professor Martin Landray has spoken in a BBC Radio 4 programme to mark one year since the launch of the RECOVERY Trial.
RECOVERY is the world’s largest randomised COVID-19 drug trial, which aims to identify treatments that may be beneficial for patients who are hospitalised with COVID-19.
The trial has established two treatments known to improve survival in COVID-19 patients: dexamethasone and tocilizumab. It has also ruled out four candidate therapies and continues to research other treatments.
RECOVERY is estimated to have so far saved the lives of one million people worldwide.
The trial was devised by Professor Landray and Professor Peter Horby, who both spoke with James Gallagher for Radio 4’s Inside Health: RECOVERY Trial on Tuesday 23 March.
BBC Radio 4 – Inside Health, Recovery Trial@PeterHorby and I speaking with @JamesTGallagher about our amazing, extraordinary, humbling experience of leading the RECOVERY trial finding treatments for COVID-19 https://t.co/iYyjp2Lmpt
— Martin Landray (@MartinLandray) March 23, 2021
In the interview, Professor Landray recalls how an email to Jeremy Farrar, Head of Wellcome Trust, asking for his thoughts on the role of randomisation as the pandemic evolved, led to him being introduced to Professor Horby.
Just nine days after writing the trial protocol, the first patient had been enrolled in the trial and within 100 days came the first breakthrough.
Professor Landray said: ‘The past year has been nothing short of extraordinary in so many ways.’
RECOVERY: 1 year old today
1 trial
1 year
10 drugs studied
6 clear answers to date:
– 2 treatments that save lives
– 4 that do not
– all against many people’s prior beliefsHow to describe the experience?
– extraordinary
– hugely rewarding
– humbling
– a privilege to be part of https://t.co/MLTpVNziPQ— Martin Landray (@MartinLandray) March 19, 2021
In the interview, the Chief Investigators discuss the origins of the trial, the ‘phenomenal’ work of the NHS in helping make RECOVERY happen, the results recorded so far, and the next steps – for RECOVERY and beyond.
‘I think we have to change the way we do trials forever,’ said Professor Landray. ‘I think it would be a travesty if we went back to the situation where it takes months and sometimes even years to get trials off the ground. We got life saving answers within 100 days of writing the protocol. My previous trials haven’t even got started within 100 days. We cannot go back there.’
Listen to Radio 4’s Inside Health: RECOVERY Trial here.
Also spotlighting one year of RECOVERY:
The University of Oxford has published an article called ‘The RECOVERY Trial: One year on’ which features comment from Professor Landray and Professor Horby.
A webinar to mark the one-year anniversary of the RECOVERY Trial will be held on Wednesday 7 April at 09:00. The public are invited to hear from those who made RECOVERY happen, including Professor Landray and Professor Horby, and participate in a Q&A session. Register here.
The Guardian has published an article called ‘Dexamethasone hailed as lifesaver for up to a million COVID patients worldwide’. The piece discusses the results of RECOVERY and notes it has saved the lives of 22,000 people in the UK, according to the NHS.
Happy Friday!
We are ready and excited for a busy Michaelmas Term ahead.
Get ready for a discussion on leadership, diplomacy, philanthropy and Olympic sport. Plus a live fencing demonstration.🤺
On 28 October, we are bringing together four extraordinary women from the United States, United Kingdom and Pan-American sporting communities for the event: Bridging Nations, Leading Change.
The conversation will explore how sport can create change across borders, from women’s leadership and philanthropy to sports diplomacy and the Olympic movement.
With a welcome from Chief Executive of @TeamGB Jon Dutton OBE , alumna Selina Kaing (MBA, 2006) will moderate the panel`s discussion featuring:
🌎 Ana Irene Delgado, Permanent Representative of Panama to the Organization of American States
🏅 Sally Munday, Chief Executive of @UKSport
🤺 Georgina Usher MBE, Chief Executive of @BritishFencing
To register, go to the link in the comments
#GreenTempletonCollege #Oxford #WomenInLeadership #SportDiplomacy #Fencing #OlympicMovement #WomenInSport #OxfordEvents
Although we can not guarantee his attendance, Vincent encourages all new students to attend the college life fairs, taking place today from 14:00 to 15:30 in the marquee and Thursday 8 October from 10:30 to 12:00!
Meet college staff and representatives from student clubs!
The college is delighted to welcome a new Oxford PharmaGenesis DPhil Scholarship in Translational Health.
The scholarship has been established through an endowment gift of £1,660,000 from Oxford PharmaGenesis, now part of the Klick family, creating a permanent fund to support doctoral students undertaking outstanding postgraduate research in the field of translational health at Nuffield Department of Primary Care @oxford_uni
Yesterday our alumni celebrated the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong alongside @st_annescollege alumni at the two societies’ first co-organised event.
The group gathered at a Michelin-starred restaurant to mark the joyful occasion, make new connections and enjoy exquisite traditional food together.
It is wonderful to see the two college alumni societies bringing the wider Oxford community together for what Nathaniel Chan (MBA, 2016), co-chair of the Green Templeton College Hong Kong Alumni Society, described as ‘a memorable occasion’.
Plans are already taking shape for a hike and karaoke event in November, following an ‘impressive impromptu a cappella performance by one alumnus’ at the lunch.
#alumni
#Oxford
#HongKong
