In this episode we speak to Professor Chris Butler who is a GP and professor of primary care at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Science at the University of Oxford. He is also Co-Chief Investigator for the PRINCIPLE trial and the PANORAMIC trial.

Paper: Colchicine for COVID-19 in the community (PRINCIPLE): a randomised, controlled, adaptive platform trial

https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2022.0083

Colchicine has been proposed as treatment for COVID-19 due to its anti-inflammatory properties, but evidence to support its use is inconclusive, and its effect on time to recovery in the community has not been evaluated. The RECOVERY trial found no benefit with colchicine use among people hospitalised with COVID-19, while the COLCORONA trial found some evidence of a 1.1% and 1.4% absolute reduction in hospitalisations/deaths among adults with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the community respectively. In this national, platform adaptive randomised controlled trial, we found evidence of no meaningful benefit with colchicine on time to recovery, and because the threshold for futility on time to recovery was met, randomisation to colchicine was stopped before collecting substantial data on hospitalisations and death, leading to imprecise estimates for that outcome. Our findings add to the evidence currently available and suggest that colchicine should not be recommended for treating symptoms of COVID-19.