Britain's Oxford University said today it would study whether the world's best-selling prescription medicine, adalimumab, was an effective treatment for Covid-19 patients, the latest effort to repurpose existing drugs as potential coronavirus therapies.

The AVID-CC trial will test the anti-tumour necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug and will be aimed at treating people in the community, especially in care homes. It will enrol up to 750 patients from community care settings throughout the UK.