COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Take Place In Rochester
Written by Site Hub on June 12, 2020
Members of Rochester Regional Health and UR Medicine are starting to recruit people to enlist in a clinical trial partnership with BioNTech and Pfizer to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
Rochester General Hospital is now testing candidates and researchers say their goals are to have a vaccine ready for emergency use by 2021.
The study consists of multiple visits over a two-year period and focuses on how participants’ immune systems respond to the proteins that other vaccines use to prevent the spread of the flu.
Clinical trials are also taking part in Germany, but Rochester is one of four locations in the U.S. taking part in the study.
Dr. Ann Falsey, co-director of the URMC Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit said:
“As anxious as we are all for a vaccine, this study is being structured very carefully to proceed with caution, looking at safety and starting in younger folks and moving up in the age spectrum. We want to get the best scientific data but protect our individual subjects.”
