Do you want to help test a vaccine for the coronavirus in New Orleans?
The trials will be conducted by Benchmark Research, a clinical trial operator with sites in New Orleans, Austin, San Angelo, Fort Worth, Texas and Sacramento, California.
“We’re hoping to get this going later this month,” Dr. Sherri Casey with Benchmark tells WWL. “We’re hoping to get 300 volunteers, maybe as many as 500.”
There will be compensation for participation and free blood work along the way, if applicants qualify to participate.
The new vaccine from Cambridge, Massachusetts drug maker Moderna is entering Phase III wide scale clinical trials.
Casey says they’re looking for frontline volunteers, people who work with or have potentially high exposure rates to the infection.
Phase III is among the last stages of a trial before a drug is brought before the Food and Drug Administration for approval for use.
Casey talked about the Phase I study, “Phase I (the initial stage where it is tested on people with no symptoms of exposure) was just published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And it found it induced immune responses in all the participants. And it had no trial limiting safety concerns with it.”
Benchmark is conducting tests at all of their locations across the country. The length of the study is set to run two years.
“The basic question now is the dosing of this vaccine. So, how strong of a dose of the vaccine do we need to illicit a good enough antibody response,” Casey explains.
“Phase III basic means safety standards have been established and in this case the safety profile looks very good, there weren’t any significant safety issues with this particular vaccine.”
Benchmark hopes to get trials underway quickly, if you’re interested in participating CLICK HERE.