Nine "Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials" approved

The SNSF has approved the first Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials. A second call will follow in August 2016.

The first call for the Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials (IICTs) has attracted great interest. With the IICT programme, the SNSF promotes clinical studies in areas that are not in the industry focus and therefore under-researched. A total of 75 applications were submitted. The SNSF has now approved nine of them.

The clinical studies will be allocated a total of 12.6 million francs. Most of them will last between four and five years and involve 100 to 400 patients in 14 study centres. The local Clinical Trial Units (CTUs) of the Swiss Clinical Trial Organisation (SCTO) will support the projects. Two studies originated from a project already funded by the SNSF, two from SNSF-funded cohort studies and one from a National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR). The studies will need to be approved by the cantonal ethics commissions and Swissmedic before they start.

A second call for the IICT programme will be launched at the beginning of August 2016.

Approved projects:

  • Claudio L. Basseti, Inselspital Bern: Early Sleep Apnea Treatment in Stroke: A Randomized, Rater-Blinded, Clinical Trial of Adaptive Servo-Ventilation
  • Gregor Emanuel Berger, Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich: Omega-3 fatty acids as first-line treatment in Paediatric Depression. A 36-week, multi-centre, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized superiority Study
  • Alexandra Calmy, Hôpitaux universitaires de Genève: Evaluation of a simplified strategy for the long-term management of HIV infection: a non-inferiority, randomized, controlled, open-label clinical trial (The SIMPL-HIV Trial)
  • Philipp Dutkowski, Universitätsspital Zürich: Hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (HOPE) for human livers - a prospective randomized European Liver Transplant Trial
  • Daniel Guido Fuster, Inselspital Bern: Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial assessing the efficacy of standard and low dose hydrochlorothiazide treatment in the prevention of recurrent calcium nephrolithiasis
  • Thomas F. Lüscher, Universitätsspital Zürich: Controlled Level EVERolimus in Acute Coronary Syndromes (CLEVER-ACS)
  • Gerhard Rogler, Universitätsspital Zürich: Multi-center, multi-national, double-blind, placebo controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of an anthocyanin-rich extract (ACRE) in moderately active ulcerative colitis
  • Markus Schwerzmann, Inselspital Bern: Effect of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition with tadalafil on systemic right ventricular function – a multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial
  • Rudolf Peter Wüthrich, Universitätsspital Zürich: Preservation of kidney function in kidney transplant recipients by alkali therapy (Preserv-Transplant Study)