UCHealth opens recruitment for AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID vaccine trials

UCHealth is launching efforts to recruit up to 1,500 Colorado residents to participate in a Phase III U.S. trial for one of the leading COVID-19 vaccines in the world.

In a statement, the health system said it is aiming to recruit adult participants who work in high-exposure jobs or have pre-existing health conditions known to be a major co-morbidity in infected patients.

UCHealth is part of the 80 sites across the U.S. participating in the trial in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, which is expected to enroll approximately 30,000 volunteers.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Exploring & expressing grief

Support groups and events, as well as creative therapies and professional counseling, are all ways in which Pathways supports individuals dealing with grief and loss.

The vaccine, code named AZD1222, is co-developed by British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca PLC (Nasdaq: AZN) and the University of Oxford.

It is seen as a front-runner to be the first widely-approved vaccine for COVID-19 in the world despite trials in the U.S. and Europe being paused for seven weeks when a patient in the United Kingdom fell ill. Oxford researchers later said the volunteer’s symptoms were unlikely to have been caused by the shot.

AstraZeneca said on Monday that initial results showed the vaccine produced “robust” immune responses.

UCHealth previously recruited volunteers for a trial of the vaccine under development by Moderna Inc. (Nasdaq: MRNA).

© 2020 BizWest Media LLC