Hattiesburg Clinic is joining 88 other research locations nationwide in a study to test the effectiveness of a potential COVID-19 vaccine. The clinical trial aims to test 500 Mississippians and 30,000 people nationwide over the coming months. Dr. Rambod Rouhbakhsh is Principal Investigator for MediSync Clinical Research at Hattiesburg Clinic. He says this vaccine uses new technologies that offer faster manufacturing. "It's a very unique vaccine, the likes of which we've never had before, so the market niche in trying this new technology is that it's scalable," says Dr. Rouhbakhsh. "So it can very easily ramp up and create hundreds of millions of doses."
The clinic recently began administering the first round of the experimental vaccine, as well as a placebo. Dr. Rouhbakhsh says the trial is scheduled to last for two years, but if data is overwhelmingly positive or negative it could be ended sooner. He says "The ethical body that governs human clinical trials called the Institutional Review Board can say 'Okay stop. It is time to end this study because we have enough data to say it's no longer ethical to have a placebo arm.' If that happens then you can stop this phase 3 trial and start giving vaccines out."
Dr. Rouhbakhsh says aside from the vaccine's effectiveness against the virus, it must also be safe to administer. He says even if the trial ends within a few months, a vaccine would not likely be available until 2021.
