A group of blood pressure medications may hold the key to better outcomes for those with COVID-19, marking a significant breakthrough in the treatment of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An exciting new study, involving researchers from across Australia and India, will investigate whether existing blood pressure medications can reduce the risk of severe disease as well as the duration of severe symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Researchers from Royal North Shore Hospital will support a team led by Associate Professor Meg Jardine from The George Institute for Global Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Professor Carol Pollock, who will lead the trial at RNSH, said the CLARITY study will involve up to 600 patients over the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cThe trial will investigate whether a class of drugs called angiotensin receptor blockers can improve outcomes for COVID-19 patients, by interrupting the virus\u2019 entry into the body\u2019s cells,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll also be looking at whether these medications can protect patients against lung injury from COVID-19, a common outcome for those with severe symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese existing blood pressure medications have already shown to reduce inflammation, and we\u2019re hopeful they\u2019ll reduce the risk of severe COVID disease and guide future treatment advice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Blood pressure medications have been used widely in the treatment of various chronic diseases for more than 30 years, and are affordable and easy to access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cIf found to be effective, these medications could be rapidly incorporated into the routine clinical care of COVID-19 patients, long before a vaccine is ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis would represent a major breakthrough in the management of these patients, so we\u2019re very keen to see the initial results of the trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe project involves a tremendous national and international collaboration, and it\u2019ll give Australia the opportunity to deliver really significant global benefits,\u201d Prof Pollock said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The trial has received $1.4 million from the Federal Government\u2019s Medical Research Future Fund. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1614,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"research-group-tax":[],"primary-research-area":[],"class_list":["post-1611","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletters"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/root_Blog_Associate-Professor-Meg-Jardine-and-Professor-Carol-Pollock-Large.jpeg",1280,750,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/root_Blog_Associate-Professor-Meg-Jardine-and-Professor-Carol-Pollock-Large-150x150.jpeg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/root_Blog_Associate-Professor-Meg-Jardine-and-Professor-Carol-Pollock-Large-300x176.jpeg",300,176,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/root_Blog_Associate-Professor-Meg-Jardine-and-Professor-Carol-Pollock-Large-768x450.jpeg",768,450,true],"large":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/root_Blog_Associate-Professor-Meg-Jardine-and-Professor-Carol-Pollock-Large-1024x600.jpeg",1024,600,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/root_Blog_Associate-Professor-Meg-Jardine-and-Professor-Carol-Pollock-Large.jpeg",1280,750,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/root_Blog_Associate-Professor-Meg-Jardine-and-Professor-Carol-Pollock-Large.jpeg",1280,750,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"ict-wordpress-support@sydney.edu.au","author_link":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/author\/ict-wordpress-supportsydney-edu-au\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A group of blood pressure medications may hold the key to better outcomes for those with COVID-19, marking a significant breakthrough in the treatment of the virus. An exciting new study, involving researchers from across Australia and India, will investigate whether existing blood pressure medications can reduce the risk of severe disease as well as…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/1611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"research-group-tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-group-tax?post=1611"},{"taxonomy":"primary-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kollinginstitute.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary-research-area?post=1611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}