RECOVER-TLC Will Advance Long COVID Research

Home
Our Programs
RECOVER-TLC Will Advance Long COVID Research

Today, there are no approved therapies to treat Long COVID or its symptoms. This has left millions of patients suffering and waiting for answers.

A new program is working to change that. Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery–Treating Long COVID (RECOVER-TLC) is an FNIH initiative led by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Our goal is to unite the scientific and patient communities in finding new approaches to address Long COVID.

RECOVER-TLC will apply lessons learned from an earlier program, RECOVER, launched in 2021 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

As an important first step, we are inviting the community to help identify promising therapeutic approaches. This could include proposed drugs, devices, or other therapeutic agents targeted at alleviating symptoms associated with Long COVID. We encourage all individuals – patients, caregivers, scientists, etc. – to share their ideas.

Submit a Therapeutic
for Consideration

Learn more about our process for reviewing therapeutics submissions.

Goals

Identify safe and effective interventions for treating Long COVID and bring these to healthcare providers for their patients as rapidly as possible
Leverage and expand on findings from previous research efforts, including ongoing RECOVER cohorts and clinical trials
Launch clinical trials that include transparent engagement with scientific leaders and people with lived experience
Encourage swift dissemination of data across the scientific community and the public

Highlighting Voices of People with Lived Experience

RECOVER-TLC is committed to empowering people who are affected by Long COVID — and that starts with sharing their voices. We recently spoke to Sevda Sarikaya, a neurologist who had to interrupt her career after her daughter rapidly deteriorated following an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The illness went on to trigger a series of debilitating autoimmune responses, and now Dr. Sarikaya is a full-time caregiver. She recently began engaging with the RECOVER-TLC effort as a neurology expert on a working group reviewing potential therapeutic interventions. Read her story.

Staying Connected

We are committed to engaging members of the Long COVID community. We use newsletters and webinars, alternating monthly, to keep everyone updated. This includes patients, advocates, academia, researchers, scientists, and clinical communities.

RECOVER-TLC Scientific Workshop

More than 1,400 people gathered for the first RECOVER-TLC Workshop in Bethesda, Md., Sept. 23-25, 2024. Videos of each session are available below.

Click the playlist button at the top right
of the video viewer for additional panels

Download a summary This in-depth document will download as a PDF

RECOVER-TLC Background

RECOVER-TLC will build on the work of the RECOVER program, which is led by three NIH Institutes: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI); NIAID; and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

RECOVER has engaged more than 30,000 people in ongoing studies and clinical trials. This has created a research engine of unprecedented scale and scope, including one of the largest and most diverse Long COVID cohorts in the world. This work has advanced our understanding and provided valuable insights into designing and conducting clinical trials to address patient-centered endpoints. Data from ongoing RECOVER trials and studies will inform RECOVER-TLC efforts.