SEATTLE — Another COVID-19 vaccine, made by Novavax, has entered Phase III of clinical trials, and University of Washington Medicine is looking for volunteers to test the new vaccine.
"This new vaccine trial uses a different construct that that have been used so far in the COVID vaccines,” said Dr. Anna Wald, head of the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Division and professor of medicine at UW Medicine.
Wald said the Novavax vaccine candidate is more traditional in its profile and is the first of the protein-based vaccines to reach this point.
"It doesn't mean it's gonna work as well, or less well, more well. It just means we need all the constructs that we can test, because there's a lot of people in the world, and we need to be able to manufacture enough vaccines for everybody,” said Wald.
UW Medicine’s site for enrolling participants is at the Virology Research Clinic (located at 908 Jefferson St., Seattle). The site will enroll up to 1,000 volunteers.
Wald said two out of three patients will receive the vaccine.
It's a process similar to other vaccine trials, but this one coincides with the roll-out of two FDA-approved COVID vaccines.
”We do have two vaccines that are effective, but they're not yet licensed. They're both available under emergency authorization and they're available for a pretty narrow section of the population thus far,” said Wald.
Researchers say the more volunteers, the sooner another vaccine can be approved, encouraging those in high-risk groups to enroll.
"We're also very much looking for people who come from under-represented communities because we know that those people have been particularly severely affected by COVID-19,” said Wald.
For more information about how to sign up:
- Email: joinuwcovid19vax@uw.edu
- Call: 206-520-4212
- Visit: www.uwvteu.org for more information