THE DESIGN
Conducting clinical research during epidemics is challenging because epidemic dynamics change, public health interventions adapt rapidly, and the scramble for preventive and curative solutions continually generates promising new interventions while discarding others. This poses major methodological challenges, as the various changes must be systematically taken into account to continue ensuring both the scientific rigor and the usefulness of the study results.Adaptive platform trials have been put forward as a potential alternative to a priori designs. Both the RECOVERY and SOLIDARITY trials were platform trials. One of the main advantages is that it is possible to discontinue evaluation of suboptimal arms (investigational product[s]) and redirect resources to the most promising ones, with an efficient use of a single “common” control arm, hence contributing not only to effective knowledge generation but also to trial efficiency.