The big lesson
The International ME/CFS Conference at Charité in Berlin (May 2026) drew more than 7,300 participants. Every randomised, placebo-controlled trial presented there for the first time missed its primary endpoint.
That sounds bleak, but there’s an important pattern underneath. In trials of LDN, immunoadsorption and BC007, some individual patients responded well, and those responses were lost in the overall “no difference” result. Researchers are now selecting patients by biomarker, e.g. testing autoantibody treatments only in people who have those autoantibodies.
Conference recordings (with English slides and subtitles) are at events.mecfs-research.org.
Promising or positive
| Result | What happened |
|---|---|
| Bezisterim (BioVie), Sept 2026 RCT Adjacent field | 203-patient Long COVID trial. Oral, crosses into the brain, thought to reduce inflammation. Missed significance in the overall group, but helped significantly in pre-planned subgroups with high fatigue, brain fog and/or PEM (about 80% of those enrolled). A Phase 3 trial is planned. The most relevant readout of 2026 for ME/CFS, because PEM-heavy patients responded. |
| Low-dose rapamycin (Simmaron) Open-label | 74% of 70 patients improved in fatigue, PEM and orthostatic symptoms. No placebo group. See Medications. |
| Hyperbaric oxygen (Charité) Observational | Benefit only with 40 sessions, not 20 |
| Rovunaptabin (BC007) in autoantibody-positive patients | A trial in Erlangen that selected patients by autoantibody was positive |
| Fluvoxamine; pre/probiotics Adjacent field | Modest results in Long COVID |
| RESETME pilot (daratumumab), Norway Open-label | 6 of 10 responded, some walking 10,000+ steps a day; 5 remained well 2–3 years later. A 66-person placebo-controlled trial is now under way (closed to new applicants). |
Negative results (worth knowing so you don’t chase them)
| Trial | Result |
|---|---|
| Canadian LDN trial (160 people, post-COVID fatigue) RCT Adjacent field | Missed its fatigue goal. More than 40% of the placebo group reportedly improved. See LDN. |
| Charité immunoadsorption (44 treated vs 21 sham) RCT | No significant difference in fatigue at 60 days. Criticised for not selecting autoantibody-positive patients; in a separate small series of autoantibody-positive patients, 7 of 15 responded. |
| PoCoVIT (methylprednisolone) RCT | Stopped early after five serious clotting events. No benefit. |
| Myoflame-19 (prednisolone + losartan, 280 patients) RCT Adjacent field | No benefit |
| BC007 BLOC trial (2024, unselected patients) RCT | No better than placebo. The company went insolvent; APTA Therapeutics has since bought the rights. |
| Ivabradine (RECOVER-AUTONOMIC, 381 people) RCT Adjacent field | Lowered heart rate, but symptoms didn’t improve |
| Paxlovid, temelimab, CoQ10 (Long COVID) RCT Adjacent field | Failed |
| Specialised pacing-based rehab (Charité) Controlled | 42 of 97 got worse |
| Multidisciplinary rehab (July 2026) Controlled | 45% got worse, 14% improved |
Key science findings of 2026
- Brain waste clearance: Griffith University showed the brain’s glymphatic system is impaired in ME/CFS (July).
- Muscles, not brain: a Stanford whole-body PET study found inflammation-type signals in muscle, not brain (May).
- Blood flow without a racing heart: Brigham & Women’s found blood flow to the brain drops when upright even when heart rate is normal (January).
- Sickness response: the Komaroff review set out how a normal “sickness” programme in the brain may fail to switch off (September).
More detail on The science.
What to watch next
- Bezisterim Phase 3 planning
- RESETME (daratumumab) placebo-controlled results
- Griffith LDN trials in ME/CFS and Long COVID
- REVERSE-LC (baricitinib) results, expected 2027
- Full publication of the Canadian LDN trial, including subgroups
- Australia’s new NHMRC ME/CFS clinical guidelines