Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 24 2020

University Hospitals announced today plans to participate as a study site for the Phase 2/3 global study sponsored by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE of an investigational vaccine, BNT162b2, against SARS-CoV-2. UH’s study site is one of approximately 120 clinical investigational sites around the world that will collectively enroll up to 30,000 participants. This vaccine is one of the most advanced candidates in the BNT162 program currently being evaluated in the United States and Germany and recently received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This is encouraging news for Ohioans. We were among the first in the nation to test Remdesivir, the promising drug in the treatment of COVID-19, which enabled our community to benefit from our participation in the clinical trial program. And now once again, we are bringing our community another potential defense mechanism in our fight against the coronavirus – a vaccine candidate. The trial has been approved by the FDA and our Institutional Review Board. We are expecting shipment of the experimental vaccine and initiation of the trial in the next week.”

Daniel I. Simon, MD, Chief Clinical & Scientific Officer and President, UH Cleveland Medical Center

The clinical trial will take place at UH Cleveland Medical Center with Robert Salata, MD, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at UH Cleveland Medical Center, Program Director of the UH Roe Green Center for Travel Medicine & Global Health and Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and International Health at Case Western Reserve University, serving as the principal investigator. Additionally, Elie Saade, MD, UH Director of Infection Control and Scott Fulton, MD and George Yendewa, MD, Assistant Professors of Medicine at UH Cleveland Medical Center, will serve as co-investigators.

“The need for an effective vaccine is critical in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Salata. “There is presently no cure for the highly contagious novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and our best plan of attack is to find a vaccine that can help protect people from getting it in the first place. The trials we are preparing to conduct are especially significant because if proven safe and effective, and the vaccine receives regulatory approval, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to manufacture up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020.”

The Phase 2/3 trial is designed as a 1:1 investigational vaccine candidate to placebo, randomized, observer-blinded study to obtain safety, immune response, and efficacy data needed for regulatory review for this unique vaccine development approach, which uses mRNA packaged with coronavirus genes to generate the spike protein which is believed to generate protective antibodies. The study aims to enroll non-pregnant adults from 18 to 85 years.

Because of the disproportionate occurrence of COVID-19 among people of color, as well as the severity of the disease and the higher death rate, UH plans to ensure solid representation of this population group is included in its study.

The trial’s primary endpoints will be prevention of COVID-19 in those who have not been infected by SARS-CoV-2 prior to immunization, and prevention of COVID-19 regardless of whether participants have previously been infected by SARS-CoV-2. Secondary endpoints include prevention of severe COVID-19 in those groups.

“The goal, as always, is to ensure access to the most novel treatments for our UH patients and the communities we serve,” Dr. Simon concluded.

Those interested in participating in the study at UH should call 612-524-9091 to learn more.