FOI 26-2767 – Clinical Trial Grant Funding

Written by Claude Haiku 4.5 from the extracted text on 10 Jul 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

The Department of Health released documents concerning the PESTO trial, a phase 2b randomised controlled trial investigating perispinal etanercept for post-stroke recovery, funded through the Medical Research Future Fund's "Return to Life, Return to Work" grants program. The Stroke Foundation announced $1 million in clinical research grants in March 2019 for stroke recovery and rehabilitation interventions, with the PESTO trial representing Australia's first multicentre clinical trial of perispinal etanercept in chronic stroke patients. The trial aimed to assess safety and efficacy on quality of life at 28 days post-treatment in working-age stroke survivors. In March 2020, the Florey Institute temporarily delayed trial recruitment commencement due to COVID-19 outbreak concerns, prioritising participant wellbeing following consultation with the Stroke Foundation and the trial governance committee.