The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, on July 8 launched its COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network, a clinical trials network seeking to enroll thousands of participants in COVID-19 vaccine and antibody treatment testing.
Here are five things to know about the network:
- Four NIAID-funded clinical trials networks joined forces to form the The COVPN: the Seattle-based HIV Vaccine Trials Network, the Durham, N.C.-based HIV Prevention Trials Network, the Atlanta-based Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium and the Los Angeles-based AIDS Clinical Trials Group. The HIV Vaccine Trials Network will act as the network's operational center.
- Larry Corey, MD, of the Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Kathleen Neuzil, MD, of Baltimore-based University of Maryland School of Medicine will lead the network's vaccine testing.
- Myron S. Cohen, MD, of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and David Stephens, MD, of Atlanta-based Emory University will lead the network's monoclonal antibody clinical testing.
- The COVPN's first phase 3 clinical trial, expected to launch this summer, will test Moderna's mRNA-1273 vaccine.
- The network plans to conduct clinical testing at more than 100 sites domestically and internationally.