COVID-19 Prevention Clinical Studies Seek Volunteers

The COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) participates in conducting clinical trials to find safe and effective vaccines and monoclonal antibodiesExit Disclaimer to protect people from COVID-19. The network aims to enroll thousands of volunteers in large-scale COVID-19 prevention clinical trials. Researchers are seeking adults aged 18 and older, of all races and ethnicities, and of all gender identities to participate in trials.

The CoVPN was formed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. CoVPN combines the infrastructure and infectious disease expertise of four existing NIAID-funded clinical trials networks: the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN), the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), and the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Consortium (IDCRC). Those individual networks will continue to perform clinical trials for HIV vaccine and prevention and other infectious diseases in addition to their new COVID roles.

The CoVPN is seeking to promote equitable representation in these clinical studies.  To this end, CoVPN will partner with communities that are and have been historically affected by socioeconomic disadvantages and health inequities and that are currently facing high risk of infection and death from COVID as well as other comorbidities.

Individuals interested in potentially volunteering to take part in a current or future COVID-19 prevention clinical trial should visit the CoVPN websiteExit Disclaimer. The website features a customized data collection platform, which Oracle (Redwood Shores, CA) built and donated, to securely identify potential trial participants. Clinical study staff will use this volunteer screening registry to contact and screen potential study volunteers.

The CoVPN is currently recruiting for a Phase 3 clinical trial testing the investigational mRNA-1273 vaccineExit Disclaimer, developed by NIAID scientists and their collaborators at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. People with controlled HIV who are not otherwise immunosuppressed are now eligible to participate in this study. In addition, COVPN is recruiting for a Phase 3 clinical trial of AZD1222Exit Disclaimer, an investigational vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca to prevent COVID-19. Additional trials are expected to begin in the coming months.

For more information about the CoVPN, visit coronaviruspreventionnetwork.orgExit Disclaimer.

To learn more about research participation and protections for research volunteers, visit www.hhs.gov/About-Research-Participation.  Information is available in both English and Spanish.