Dignity Health seeks volunteers at Woodland clinic for Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine trial
Dignity Health announced Monday that its clinics in Yolo County will be enrolling 200 patients in a late-stage clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by Novavax.
The Maryland-based biotech company won attention from both researchers and Wall Street for the impressive number of antibodies its candidate produced in its early testing. The company also is working with UC Davis Health, which is enrolling 200-300 people in the phase 3 clinical trial for the candidate formally known as NVX-CoV2373.
“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge, with record number of individuals being infected every day. Continued research is needed in vaccines and treatments to help end the pandemic,” said Dr. Rajan Merchant, a clinical immunology specialist with Dignity’s Woodland clinic. “The development of multiple vaccines will ensure options for patients, creating a larger impact in the fight against coronavirus.”
Overall, Novavax is seeking roughly 30,000 participants in the United States and Mexico, and it also has late-stage trials going on in the United Kingdom and phase 2 trials in South Africa and Australia. Its phase 1 results were published Sept. 2 by the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Novavax vaccine has an immune-boosting agent that signals the body to make antibodies to the spike proteins that stud the surface of the new coronavirus, the pathogen that causes COVID-19. That prevents those spike proteins from hooking up to cells within the bodies, hijacking their processes and turning them into virus-producing factories.
Like the Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, the Novavax candidate will be given in two doses administered three weeks apart. As with all the clinical trials, not all patients will receive the vaccine candidate. UC Davis noted that two people will get the vaccine for every person receiving a placebo, and neither the participants nor the researchers will know who gets either.
“The [Novavax] vaccine contains protein antigens that cannot replicate or cause COVID-19. The antibodies generated by the vaccine will help protect the body from the real, fully-potent virus,” said Dr. Stuart Cohen, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and director of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Prevention at UC Davis Health.
Over the course of the 26-month study, patients will have to return for eight to 10 visits, UC Davis officials noted.
Locally, Dignity is running the Novavax trial through its Woodland Clinic, based at 632 W. Gibson Road, but the health provider also expects to see volunteers from its affiliate offices at 2081 Bronze Star Drive, 1321 Cottonwood St., 515 Fairchild Court and 1207 Fairchild Court in Woodland and at 2330 W. Covell Blvd. and 2440 W. Covell Blvd. in Davis.
UCD and Dignity are looking to get a diverse group of patients who represent the ages, ethnic and racial groups and health conditions in the Sacramento population.
Novavax received a $1.6 billion grant from the U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed and $388 million from the global Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to support its efforts to develop a vaccine. Companies are developing more than 100 COVID-19 vaccine candidates.
This story was originally published January 4, 2021 at 3:04 PM.
