COLUMBUS – The OSU Wexner Medical Center will be one of the test sites for clinical trials on an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, which has infected over 6 million Americans.
The multicenter, 30,000-person clinical trial on humans will test an experimental COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by the University of Oxford and the biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, medical center officials announced Tuesday.
Results from an early clinical trial in the United Kingdom indicated the drug is safe and prompts a strong immune response, producing both antibodies and T-cells, which find and attack virus cells, said Dr. Rama Mallampalli, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at The OSU College of Medicine.
Researchers plan to recruit about 500 adults at higher risk of exposure, such as teachers, first responders, college students, factory workers, restaurant employees and those age 65 or older.
Study participants will receive either the experimental vaccine or a placebo, have blood samples drawn and follow up with medical experts over two years to evaluate how well the vaccine, called AZD1222, can protect people from COVID-19.
Results from this and other clinical trials being conducted through the COVID-19 Prevention Network are critical in getting a COVID-19 vaccine to market, Mallampalli said.
The network was created by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, using the infectious diseases expertise at four of its existing clinical trials networks, which has allowed CoVPN to quickly set up COVID-19 clinical trials at sites with a long history of research and collaboration.
The Wexner Medical Center’s AIDS Clinical Trials Unit is a member of two of those NIAID-funded networks.
The state reportwe 1,453 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 Tuesday for a total of 124,610 with 4,165 deaths and 16,421 active cases.