Summary

The ASAP Trial was designed to be set up and placed in readiness to be activated in the event of an influenza pandemic. The ASAP trial was in hibernation in 2013. At the outset of the COVID-19, the need for a large platform trial to evaluate multiple interventions concurrently and rapidly led to the development of the RECOVERY Trial. The aims of the ASAP trial were transferred across to the RECOVERY Trial; dexamethasone was in the first trial arm in RECOVERY.

In relation to influenza treatments, there are now more possible interventions available than in 2013 when the ASAP Trial was conceived. The RECOVERY Trial has been approved to evaluate the role of dexamethasone in influenza, alongside other interventions, within a platform trial design. Therefore, the NIHR made the decision to bring the ASAP trial to a formal close at the end of April 2022.

The ASAP Trial has been in hibernation from 2013 to the present. It has never been activated. No patients were recruited into the trial and no medicinal products or placebo were distributed to participating sites. Given that the trial was closed prior to recruitment commencing, there will be no evaluable results from the trial.

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