hey guys ECR G here back with another episode today is April 14th 2020 doing
another coronavirus update I know a lot of people have been enjoying these
updates my take on the clinical trials industry how coronavirus is affecting us
with tales from the trenches actually working through this being a monitor
through this pandemic this crisis this never before happened this crisis the
crisis like this has never happened before
a little tongue-tied you know I've asked people a lot in the past about how it
was working clinical trials going through the Great Recession 2008-2009
after the market crash a lot of people during that time said they basically you
know they still had their jobs there weren't any layoffs of great magnitude
however they just didn't get extra stuff like bonuses and extra incentives that
they offer throughout the industry so having been in this crisis for about a
month now I just looked at made my first uploaded the first coronavirus video to
this channel March 12 so that's a month in two days away it was crazy how time
has flown so I'm gonna give you an update today April really in the thick
of things pretty much most states at this point have issued stay at home
orders pretty much across the country I think most people are adhering to that a
little anecdotal evidence just going around town I think in the beginning
when they English initially issued a state at-home order about two weeks ago
a lot of people were adhering to it I was just out and about today and it
still seems a lot of people are still out and about I think it has decreased
traffic a little bit not a crazy amount I think more and more people are
becoming more and more comfortable going out pretty much all places restaurant
not restaurant restaurants are closed bars closed still all non-essential
businesses are closed most of the time I've been going to the grocery store
people are starting to wear masks in the grocery store now you are seeing a lot
more of that you are seeing grocery stores
implementing like a traffic pattern so one-way aisles one way to go throughout
the store no backtracking they have signs all around saying stay six feet
away from people and things of that nature so that's quite interesting is
that the new normal how much longer is the grocery store gonna be like that how
much longer are we going to be in a state like this where you're gonna have
to wear masks in public places places like China have already been doing that
for years now and always thought it was interesting when you see people you know
in America wearing masks I'm always thought that was interesting
maybe I thought they were sick and didn't want to get other people sick but
it's interesting now so now it's not so peculiar to see that most people wearing
masks including myself I wore masks so as far as clone aronia virus and
clinical trials I mean of course all that stuff is kind of interlinked but as
far as the clinical trials specifically I have not heard of any layoffs yet
I think pharmaceuticals are naturally positioned where they're to be making
money regardless because people still need their medications during this time
so I feel like the income flow has not decreased a whole lot yet we are having
a situation where so many people are filing for unemployment you know of
course these people take medications too so what happens if they have to decide
between paying rent or buying food or paying a copay for medication I think
we're not too far away from that if this thing continues to continues to go on we
have people like the president president Trump saying that people need to you
know keep staying at home however he's looking to open the economy back up soon
which i think would be a disaster because I think we'll be right back in
this situation more people will get infected seems like the flattening the
curve is actually working people social distancing is actually working
and decreasing the stress on her hospital system and our healthcare
system so that's good news of course you know this isn't directly affecting
clinical trials but it does in the sense that monitoring of the clinical trials
can't happen unless the economy someone opened up and there's less of a risk I
do think there's gonna be come a point where CEOs and sponsors are gonna open
back up travel I mean travel has not been completely shut down although
people are voluntarily not traveling currently most companies have a stay at
home order that has a no travel for executives salespeople at least by
airport until the 30th of April as far as I've heard that has not been extended
past that but I do yet but I do see that happening whether they have an official
policy or unofficial policy is the question officially there no travel for
employees for business reasons until the 30th unofficially they might you know
make it a few weeks longer depending obviously sites may not be open keep in
mind pharmaceutical companies clinical trials
are usually our at-risk populations any type of underlying medical condition
leaves you extra susceptible to kovat so they have to be wary of the patients too
so there's a lot of say here even if sponsors and CEOs open back up
travel not all sites are gonna open up travel at the same time too so you know
it's gonna be interesting to see how that happens but so far we have
implemented remote monitoring strategies those seem to be going okay not as
thorough as an on-site monitoring not as Thoreau's are as on-site monitoring but
you know it gets the job done it's okay for now hard to say when will open back
up because protocols were written monitoring windows were written so far I
haven't heard of a lot of amendments of the protocols because of this and I
think you know we're just trying to make it to
the finish line of the study at this point however we can do that
I was in the middle of a couple studies actually that were about to be closed
down literally if kovat was not happening I would be closing them down
right now the past weeks and the week going forward closing them out so that
have been interesting if we had done all that and then coded it they'd only be
some literally sitting with nothing to do so it's kind of a blessing in
disguise we actually have quote unquote work to do during this time because
those sites are not closed out so we have to continue monitoring them
continue keeping up with them and we've actually let patients continue to take
the study drug even if they are past the end of the study until they can get it
on site it's a determination visit so a lot of times you want that last set of
data even though you've been collecting data along this whole time for months
and years they want that last bit of data before they come off the study now
this is just right now this is April 14th 2020 things can change
you know if we're tied for in September I doubt they're gonna let them keep
taking the study I mean the study drug I'm sure there's gonna be a remote study
termination visit because at the end of the day we have been collecting data now
for months so you know what is that data going to and especially these are open
label studies so they've actually been on study drug so they didn't click on
data for months and years now so is that data really that necessary probably not
but you know we're right here at the end like I said we'd be they be doing their
study termination visits we'd be right there to close them back close them out
so we were at the end so we'll see so haven't had any major changes we've
been continue to do remote monitoring continuing people are working from home
as many people as possible I think like I mentioned before in other episodes
it's gonna be interesting when you know a month from now people are going are
they're saying come back to the office how many people are gonna be like no I
don't want to come into the office anymore
I loved now having to wake up and deal with traffic not having to wake up and
get ready in the morning I'm not having to wake up put gas in my
car not having to wake up and you know take my car to the shop because of the
maintenance and the commute and it's been really interesting and you know I
was a little off topic but it's gonna be interesting for things like school all
the kids are working remotely arts you know taking classes remotely for place
like college where you're paying $50,000 a year you know do I really need to pay
that for all four years or can they really do half on line half in person or
some variation of that to get a reduced price so you know I've heard that
colleges are really you know might be affected by this of course they should
have had a more robust online learning community this whole time but it is what
it is so covet guys it's crazy that we're living through this it's crazy
that we're living through this time I hope you guys are staying safe I hope
you guys have ordered some masks and continuing to protect yourself and your
family hopefully nobody that listens to this
podcast last YouTube channel have contracted kovat and if you have
hopefully I wish you a speedy recovery because I guess if you have if you do
catch it and you do beat it you are susceptance acceptable to getting it
again for at least some period of time so you could move to the world more
freely and more comfortably having done that so what do you guys
think tell me in the comments do you think will will be open everything will
be open back up by June or do you think he'll be incremental and he'll take all
the way until September do you think that the President Trump will do
something erratic just trying to open up the whole country again certain parts of
the country open back up they get it start spreading it and contaminating
other people and they have to close back down what do you think is gonna happen
I'm of the mindset that it's gonna be sort of a double dip I think as I've
seen just anecdotally more and more people are being more comfortable out
and about so I think whether whether it's opened officially or unofficially
people are gonna start going out more and congregating more just because
they're tired of being closed up the tide of being self quarantined in
their house and I think we'll have a spike again but I think our initial
efforts to at least quell the stress on the hospital system has worked hopefully
we can get a vaccine soon hopefully we can find some treatment so just
anecdotally write a read an article that the chloroquine hydrochloric
hydrochloric wean anti-malarial drug has not had early has not had good success
in clinical trials but that's obviously very very early there's also been
anecdotal evidence that it works well I think it's been interesting I read an
article that President Trump has been pushing the chloroquine a lot but if you
go follow the money he owns he's a success he has a big part he's a big
chunk of the company that makes the drug so I think that's very questionable so
we just want to look at the data here hopefully we can find some kind of
alternate therapy that works I've seen a lot of posts on Instagram about
alternate therapies that are being that are now going to be in clinical trials
too so we can find something to kind of mitigate this virus and stamp it out
before vaccine comes hopefully that vaccine comes sooner than later and then
we then we know for sure we can open back up so this my update guys on co vid
if you guys have any questions about it or any specific things about what I
think is gonna happen email me Ali clinical group at gmail.com if you guys
are interested in resume reviews LinkedIn profile reviews or interview
preparation email me Ali clinical group at gmail.com take care