ECRAID-Prime is one of the six projects funded by the European Commission's Horizon Europe program to drive therapeutic and vaccines clinical trials to boost COVID-19 and COVID-like illness treatment and prevention.

Launched in December 2021, the ECRAID-Prime project will implement Europe's first adaptive platform trial on COVID-19 therapeutics in the primary care setting. The project continues to build on many years of EU investment in infrastructure for primary care trials and a mature primary care research network that has pioneered novel, efficient, platform clinical trial designs.

COVID-19 therapeutics in primary care

European citizens affected by COVID-19 have been well-served by landmark clinical trials in hospitals that have found treatments that save many lives. However, there are fewer opportunities for people in the community to contribute to the urgent mission of finding treatments that speed recovery, and reduce the need for hospital admission in the first place. 

Desperately needed are evidence-based therapeutics for use in primary care that have the potential for considerable reach and impact on individual suffering and functioning, as well as on the sustainability of health services. The overall goal of ECRAID-Prime is to establish safety and efficacy, and thus suitability of COVID-19 and COVID-like-illness treatments in Phase I studies, and Phase II trials for potential for progression to Phase III evaluation.

COVID-19 Booster vaccine

Call for compounds

ECRAID-Prime is seeking to select compounds for treatment of non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

Our work

ECRAID-Prime is a multi-country collaboration built on strong clinical and academic relationships. It will continue the successful work of EU-funded projects RECOVER and PREPARE, and the ongoing COVID-19 PRINCIPLE trial in the UK, and will focus on efficacy trials for therapeutics that can be administered within the community. The platform will use response adaptive randomisation to ensure that the safety and efficacy of treatments can be assessed in the timeliest manner.

ECRAID-Prime's focus on primary care will help complete the vision for a lasting, integrated, comprehensive and sustainable European clinical research preparedness and response capacity in the primary care setting.

EUCT nr: 2022-501707-27

“Despite vaccination and emerging evidence for the effectiveness of oral anti-viral agents and novel monoclonal antibodies, many people continue to be infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and require hospital admission. That makes finding new and cost-effective treatments for use in the community a top priority. ECRAID-Prime will continue the successful work of EU-funded PREPARE and RECOVER projects, to select and evaluate novel approaches for community treatment of COVID-19. There are many exciting approaches that require further evaluation, and this novel international platform study will be a huge resource generating the high-quality evidence needed on proof of principle and efficacy.” – Chris Butler, ECRAID-Prime project lead.

European UnionECRAID-Prime is funded by the European Union’s HORIZON 2021 – 2027 Research and Innovation Programme, under the Grant Agreement number 101046109. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.