ST. LOUIS — Saint Louis University is looking for volunteers to take part in the clinical trial for a second-generation COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine is being developed by biotech company Gritstone. Dr. Daniel Hoft, the director of SLU’s Center for Vaccine Development, said the hope is the vaccine will protect people better from COVID variants and protect them for a longer time.
SLU is looking for about 140 volunteers for Phase 1 of the Gritstone vaccine trials. Just some of the criteria you have to meet to be considered for Phase 1:
- At least 18 years old
- Have not received any COVID vaccines currently available
- Have not been a part of any other experimental COVID vaccine trials
- Have not been diagnosed with COVID
If you are interested in volunteering you can fill out the full questionnaire online at http://vaccine.slu.edu or you can call 314-977-6333 or 1-866-410-6333.
Dr. Hoft said they are developing the second generation of vaccines because it is better to be safe than sorry. As variants of COVID-19 appear around the world, there have been questions about how well the vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson will protect against a mutated virus.
While Dr. Hoft said they are focused on getting the Gritstone vaccine tested as quickly and safely as possible, it is also important to be looking down the road.
“The longer term is anticipating the next outbreak,” says Hoft. “We’ve had three coronavirus outbreaks in the last 20 years. We had the first SARS, we have MERS, now we have SARS CoV-2.”
The next steps for the Gritstone vaccine are Phase 2 trials, which could include hundreds of patients, followed by Phase 3 that would have thousands of patients.